In southern Utah, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is an expansive place with 1.87 million acres of America's public lands. From desert to coniferous forest it is filled with canyons, arches, cliffs, terraces, and plateaus. Fossils from this area have taught more about ecosystem change from the end of the dinosaur era than any other place in the world.
The original home of Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont people today's descendants include people from the Hopi, Paiute, Zuni, Ute, and Navajo tribes. The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is named after the five topographic benches and cliffs that rise in elevation. They have eroded, revealing cliffs a yellow reddish color with dots of green foliage. Each of the five “steps” can be seen from the outer reaches of the Grand Canyon in Arizona to Bryce Canyon in Utah.
It is hard to get a picture of the scale although the many visitors centers and museums throughout the monument can help guide your adventure. The location can be appreciated just driving through or spending more time hiking, camping and backpacking. At the interagency visitors center you can find information for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (Bureau of Land Management), Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (National Park Service), and Dixie National Forest (National Forest Service).
Only two miles from the visitors center is the Hole-in-the-Rock Escalante Heritage Center where we learned the story of a 200-mile expedition of 1879 that involved Mormon pioneers navigating wagons down a 1,200-foot vertical cliff to the banks of the Colorado River. It is also possible to visit the actual Hole-in the Rock Site in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
