Hi friends! Hope you are having a great week! Thanks for tuning in to read about our mid-October visit to Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument!

First a bit about this massive park and the features in the area! The monument was established only 25 years ago and covers 1.87 million acres. To put that into perspective, the park is larger than the state of Delaware! The government protected this area because of the extensive ruins, granaries and petroglyphs that belonged to both the Fremont and Anasazi cultures. The rugged landscape resulted in this being one of the last places in the continental US to be mapped! There are rock cliffs, valleys, slot canyons, natural bridges and arches in this park that contribute to some of the best hiking trails in the world. It’s a true adventure paradise in the desert.

We visited the monument twice and I will cover all of our adventures in this blog post. We enjoyed the first two sites (including the Mexican Food trucks) in the company of our friends, Bob and Garrett. Mark and I visited the last two sites after our trip to Zion National Park.

Backpacking the Upper Escalante River Trail

We initially planned to complete an overnight loop trail that would have included a portion of the [former] Boulder Pony Express mail route and a hike into Death Hollow Canyon before returning along the Escalante River. Both the Death Hollow trail and the Escalante River trail include time hiking directly in the waterway. Upon speaking to a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Ranger, she advised that, due to recent mountain snowfall, the water in Death Hollow was neck-deep in places and was averaging 45 degrees! We adjusted our plans to hike an out-and-back along the [warmer] Escalante River with a short side hike into Death Hollow Canyon. This kept us warmer and dryer for our first hike in the area.

The Upper Escalante River trail was exceptionally quiet and we were surrounded by high sandstone cliff walls for the entire hike. We enjoyed walking through the stunning fall colors as well as the viewing the occasional pictographs. For us, this trail was a nice introduction to what we would later see in the Zion Narrows.

The beauty of the Escalante River can easily be enjoyed with a day hike; however, spending the night along the river provided us with a bit more time to enjoy the scenery. If you find yourself in this area, we heard that the waterfalls at Calf Creek are also worthy of a stop. And a final tip for this area of Escalante is to plan a stop at Magnolia’s Street Food taco truck in Boulder, Utah. The ‘truck’ was a blue school bus and the burritos were outstanding!

(Click on any picture to open the gallery and read the captions)

Slot Canyons along Hole-in-the-Rock Road, Escalante

South of Escalante is a 62-mile bumpy dirt road called ‘Hole In The Rock Road’. The Mormons chiseled this historic road when they were moving west into Utah from Mississippi. The road was so pitted that we saw several car parts strewn about including a drive shaft! Bob rented a Yukon, which handled the road well, but we are confident that Hank (AKA ‘Ole Tippy’) wouldn’t have been too happy about the terrain! The moral of our story is to rent a high clearance vehicle to access these awesome slots!

We arrived at the Upper Dry Fork Trailhead after driving 26 miles down Hole In the Rock Road. Bob had thoughtfully planned this adventure to ensure that we started with the widest slot canyon and worked our way into the narrowest slots. Suffice to say that I have never experienced slot canyons like this and it was totally amazing!

Our morning started in Dry Fork Narrows where we hiked along a dry river bed. We then hiked to Peek A Boo slot canyon and finished with Spooky Gulch. In total, we hiked about 7 miles and took most of the day to enjoy the canyons and the amazing scenery!

Dry Fork Narrows

Peek A Boo Canyon

Spooky Gulch

There are other slot canyons and areas to explore along Hole In The Rock Road. There are also extensive BLM camping opportunities to enable a multi day trip. We had a warm bed and shower in Escalante and made a note to return here during our next visit to Utah!

We ate dinner in Escalante at a food truck called Georgie’s Outdoor Mexican Cafe. It is on the ‘main drag’ in town, sits outside of an RV park, and was another awesome food stop! In chronological order of our travels, we now head from Escalante to Bryce Canyon and Zion Canyon National Parks with Bob and Garrett.

Mansard Rock Art and the Toadstools

Two highly recommended trails in Grand Staircase – Escalante Monument are close to the Kanab city limits. The Mansard Trail is a 5-mile out and back that seems to climb straight up the side of a sandstone mountain. I recall wondering several times ‘is this really going to be worth it?’ (Of course, it totally was!) At the top of the mountain lies a sandstone slab covered with pictographs estimated to be 870 – 1070 years old! Pictographs and petroglyphs are generally found on sandstone walls; it is highly unusual to find them on the floor. We were lucky to find ourselves sharing the alcove with a resident expert who pointed out several scenes including a birthing scene and ‘walking’ bear paws.

The local resident also recommended other hikes in the area; we followed her advice and were delighted by both treks.

The Toadstools hike is a very easy day hike that led us to interesting rock formations. The local advised us to ‘hike around to the left even though there isn’t an established trail that way’. The hike led us to an incredible vista that overlooked Escalante for miles. It was a great surprise!

Our new friend also recommended that we hike Buckskin Gulch, starting from the Wire Pass Trailhead.

Buckskin Gulch

Hikers must secure a day-use permit to hike Buckskin Gulch. We secured our day-use permit online (recreation.gov) as there is no cell service at the trail head. This slot canyon is a ‘must do’ on any trip to this area; however, be sure to plan ahead in securing a permit.

We started at Wire Pass trailhead and hiked 5 miles into this 22-mile canyon before turning around. There were several people at the start of the trail, but once we were 3 miles in (and had to cross shallow water), then we felt alone in the canyon. There are multi-day hikes in this region and we are definitely planning to return to further explore and enjoy this canyon and the surrounding area.

Our travels will take us to Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon and then into Arizona. We updated the Gas Game post with our our latest stats. Thanks for following along on our adventure!