Grand Staircase-Escalante

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Thursday, May 17, 2012



We made the short trip to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument this morning. We camped at Kodachrome Basin State Park. We had the best site in the park (number7) and was amazingly the same site that was vacated by a couple that we met at Brice yesterday. The site was backed by red cliffs and shaded by Utah Junipers We drove to Escalante and hiked the Escalante River Trail. The canyons were 200-300 ft high. The sandstone was mostly black and Grey and made many U shaped curves up the canyon. We started a 5 PM and did not finish until just about sunset (8:30). We ate a Barbeque restaurant in Escalante. It was a windy but a nice hike.

Friday, May 18, 2012

This morning we hiked at Willis Creek. This tiny creek had carved out a canyon through gorgeous sand stone formations. The 30-100 foot walls were smoothed by past water flows and polished so that each layer of sandstone glistened. In some areas the canyon was only 5 feet wide and 30 feet high (quite the visual experience). In the after noon we hiked through the red sandstone formations in Kodochrome. There are unusual vertical columns that come right out of the desert floor. They are called pipes. When we came back the awning was on top of the tent trailer with both poles broken. Hopefully I can fix the damage when we get to Denver.

Saturday, May19, 2012

We got up just after sunrise and walked another trail in Kodachrone called Angles Castle. The hike was about an hour over the top of the sandstone formations. We had great vistas of the park but we never did see the “staircase”. We packed up and headed to Moab. On the way we stopped at Petrified Wood State Park in Escalante. We had a great hike (very steep in places) and saw multicolored petrified wood trees through out the hike. We had a picnic lunch on a lake in the park. We headed up highway 12 through magnificent canyons and over a low mountain range that was covered with aspen. Many of the aspen had died of “sudden aspen death” (the cause is unknown). We traveled back to the desert and entered Capital Reef National Park. Again there was stunning scenery but no hiking because of time. We arrived at Moab about 8 PM and ate at a nice Italian Restaurant. Moab is a happening place. There are lots of hikers, mountain bike riders, rafters, and ATV riders. It is very casual but very hip for Utah.

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