It IS more or less impossible to get there by CAR......a high clearance, low range equipped, 4-wheel drive with an experienced driver will typically have no problems, except for the middle of the summer when the sand is totally dry (a little bit of moisture in the sand helps a great deal.....hence the preference for Fall, Winter and Spring). The local ranchers will tell you this. Some of the sand tracks on the Paria Plateau are dangerously impassible in the middle of the Summer. Add that to the really bad/harsh light of the cloud-less mid-Summer. Lizards Yes. Photographers No. About helicopters, I have not heard of one, and I doubt the BLM would allow it.
There are a number of knowledgeable guide services in the area (they provide the transportation and the local knowledge). Steve Dodson (
www.paria.com ) is one that I have known for years.
I live in Prescott, Arizona and have been prowling the Sand Hills of the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument (that's what it's designated) for at least a decade, and would never go there June through August.
Miles Heckers article was spot-on about the wonders of the South Coyote Buttes. Well done! But I should caution photographers inexperienced in wilderness travel, that the South Coyote Buttes are real wilderness. The sweet light is just before dark.......did you bring a light, a gps to route you back to your vehicle? And if you fell and twisted your ankle there may be no one in ear-shot for days. Your wilderness survival preparedness needs to be commensurate with your photographic equipment preparedness. Drivers need to be experienced in wilderness route finding/gps skills/topo map reading, as well as driving in deeply rutted sand.
Mike Coffey, Prescott, Arizona
