Wave may see increase in crowds

One of the most exclusive and dramatic hiking spots in the southwestern United States could see bigger crowds under a new proposal unveiled Wednesday.

The Bureau of Land Management is weighing increasing its daily visitor limits from 20 to 96 people a day at The Wave, a popular rock formation near the Utah-Arizona border.

A 6-mile (9.5-kilometer) round trip hike through tall sandstone buttes and sagebrush is required to get to the Wave, a wide, sloping basin of searing reds, oranges, and yellows in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.

The agency is asking for public comment and changes could be implemented as soon as October.