Grand Staircase/Escalante

Escalante is a small town surrounded by some of the most rugged yet beautiful country in Utah. The areas to the south and east were among the last places in America to be explored and mapped and have long been popular with adventurous explorers and back-country enthusiasts. The area is now protected following the establishment in 1996 of the new Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument, which covers 1.7 million mostly roadless acres. The principal attractions are based around tributaries of the two major river systems - the Paria and the Escalante.

The western section of the Monument contains most of the Grand Staircase - a series of differently colored uplifted sandstone cliffs stretching in order of increasing age between Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon. Cutting through the cliffs is one of the two major canyon systems; that formed by the Paria River and its tributaries.

The other major canyon system is formed by the Escalante River. This canyon runs through the town of Escalante and then along a long canyon towards Lake Powell, with dozens of side-canyons, many of which are quite narrow and fascinating to explore. This region also has numerous natural bridges and arches, but there are few access routes.

click on thumbnails to view a larger image

(we had to descend a long, fairly steep section of slick rock)

looking back up at some of the rock we descended to get to the bottom of the wash

walking up the slick rock is NOT as difficult as descending

flowers in the desert

more flowers

here we were able to walk along the Escalante River but later we had to take our boots off and wade upstream & further on we had to wade across the river

Indian Paintbrush

the remains of a Fremont Indian granary can be seen in the rocks

me & Lower Calf Creek Falls

3 pictographs are in the bottom center of the flat rock

view of Calf Creek & Canyon

Ann

this wall has MANY hand petroglyphs

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On the last day after a hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls and lunch we had a short scenic flight from Escalante back to Moab. We flew in three small planes while the two guides drove the van back with the luggage. One plane held six passengers and the other two planes only had room for three passengers each. We had great views from 9,000 feet of  much of the landscape that we have seen during the course of the week by foot and by shuttle.

Escalante

Canyonlands

good view of the upturned reef

Henry Mountains

Green River

Green River

to continue on & see pictures from the rest of this vacation click on 

Arches & Canyonlands  -  San Rafael Swell  -  Capitol Reef

for pictures of other vacations return to the Vacation Photos page