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Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
A visit to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah's newest national recreation area, is no day trip in a rental car or RV.
Wolverine Bench of Escalante Canyon.
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It is an enormous, empty and mysterious place, the last remaining expanse of its kind in the lower 48 states. The remote, rugged and desolate region of cliffs, canyons, mesas, buttes and plateaus on the southern end of Utah is certainly true backcountry.
Unanimously, the advice from those who know the land is that the Grand Staircase-Escalante is adequately explored only by the well-equipped and only over a period of days or weeks, not hours. Most travelers will find it manageable only by visiting more than once.
The monument is divided into three distinct regions: the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau and the canyons of the Escalante. President Bill Clinton designated the more than 1.8 million acres for national protection to be managed by the Bureau of Land Management in 1996.
There are no east-west routes through most of the monument and only two paved highways, both of which skirt the edges. Scenic U-12, from Bryce Canyon National Park to Boulder, is among the most picturesque drives in the world. U.S. 89 across the southwest corner allows access into the monument via three dirt roads.
Portions of the monument can also be viewed from the Burr Trail, a somewhat improved 75-mile road that runs from the town of Boulder to Bullfrog Marina on Lake Powell. Attractions along this drive include Long Canyon, where massive walls and spires are reminiscent of Capitol Reef National Park, and the Wolverine Petrified Wood Area.
Cottonwood Canyon Road might be the best and most reliable route to take into the heart of the monument. From the south, you find it between mileposts 17 and 18 on U.S. 89. From the north, it's the road that bears left out of Cannonville and is marked by a sign to Grosvenor Arch, perhaps the monument's most well-known feature. Either way, it's a 45-mile back-road trip from one side of the Grand Staircase-Escalante to the other.
Grosvenor Arch is perhaps the monument's most well-known feature.
Ravell Call, Deseret News |
Each of the monument's three sections has its own personality, but everywhere you go, you run into the same travel theme: sometimes-impassable roads ahead, washouts imminent, flooding possible, no hope of food, fuel or help for miles to come. Tourists to the monument will frequently encounter road signs saying "four-wheel-drive only," "unimproved road" and "impassable when wet."
Anyplace inside the monument can be considered remote, but the loneliest area, and the least accessible, is probably the Kaiparowits.
Almost every corner of the preserve has hazards.
Hikers in the Escalante canyons in very recent times have drowned in flash floods that materialize in a matter of minutes. Injured climbers have died before help could be summoned from 50 or more miles away. Motorists have spent days trapped on roads turned into bogs by sudden cloud-bursts.
During the winter months visitors should seriously consider viewing the monument from the roads on the edges. Roads into the heart of the monument are usually impassable until at least mid-March.
To ward off tragedy in the monument, travelers should obtain the latest weather information from the BLM. They should also get a map and know how to read it. Maps of the monument cost $6 and are available at agency offices in Cedar City, Kanab and Escalante.
For more information go to www.ut.blm.gov/monument/.
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