On to Bryce Canyon National Park

South Central Utah!

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument spans approximately one million acres of America's public lands. the Monument is a diverse geologic treasure speckled with monoliths, slot canyons, natural bridges, and arches. Due to its remote location and rugged landscape, the monument was one of the last places in the continental United States to be mapped. 

Grand Staircase-Escalante was reduced by nearly 47 percent through a presidential proclamation in 2017 (and the nearby Bears Ears National Monument was reduced by 85 percent). This move flies in the face of a 100-plus-year legacy, taking the public lands that belong to all of us and opening them up to being sold to private industry, most commonly oil, gas, coal, logging, grazing, and development.

I can't imagine watching as the land is developed for these causes. It is truly a masterpiece.

We can't be tourists all of the time since this is our lives. Our stay in Escalante City, a small ranching town nestled along Utah’s Scenic Byway 12 is always a treat.

We enjoy walking from the campground on the edge of town to our favorite Organic food store for fresh baguettes, tomatoes and mozzarella. With only 850 residents, the largest town for 70 miles in all directions bringing a unique charm to this corner of Southern Utah. This part of Southern Utah is famous for its slot canyons — twisting, turning narrows carved into the rock by water and wind over the millennia. We skipped the hiking for reading and catching up on what was happening in the world. And of course a visit to Georgie's food truck was is order.

Escalante Petrified Forest State Park is just 2 miles out of town on a lake and only $16/night for full hookups. which would have also been a great place to stay.

Bryce Canyon National Park

As we entered the gate to Bryce Canyon National Park, the ranger asked what our plans were for our trailer. Fortunately we had reservations. We arrived early and lucked out, the people from the previous 

night were pulling out as we arrived. 

We got a tip from Laura and Kevin that write https://www.chapter3travels.com while visiting a National Park, to get out later in the day for that hike to avoid the crowds. We arrived at the Fairyland Turnout and waited a few minutes for a parking space plus it was getting cooler and the shadows from the setting sun made some nice pictures.

Queen's Garden Trail to Navajo Trail

We got an early morning start on our hike from Wall Street on the Navajo Trail to the Queen's Garden. It was 39 degrees as we were leaving the campground but we were removing our layers in no time.

 Many people looked like they were in over their heads as they walked down the trail. The Queen's Garden is considered the easiest but at least one person a day needs to be rescued from this trail. One older lady in her bedazzled flip flops, no water and not conditioned for the 8000 feet elevation looked like she would be the one assisted by the park's rangers out of the canyon that day.

Going down.

With two choices up the Navajo Loop, .6 miles on the Two Bridges side or we chose the .7 mile Wall Street side. Yet I still stopped frequently with the excuse to take another photo.

We dropped rapidly into the hoodoos 

The slot canyon at the bottom of Wall Street.

A hoodoo that, presumably, resembles a statue of Queen Victoria provides a “destination” for the 1.8 mile round trip down and up of the Queen’s Garden trail.  It’s a 500 foot side 

trail right after a human-made tunnel through a hoodoo wall.

When we walked to the trailhead from the campground and there was plenty of parking available. But was packed on our return. We were tired and opted for a shuttle which took us to the visitor's center. We could have stayed on and ridden to Ruby's Inn and then back if we wanted to be sure to have a seat. We thought no problem and stopped at the visitor's center.

The shuttle buses run every 10-15 minutes with half of the seats removed, windows open and people wearing masks. The only problem is trying to get on at the visitor's center after the bus was full from Ruby's Inn. We were second in line after a group of four in front of us. The door opened and a park staff person said they only had room for two. I quickly said we would go if they didn't want to take the seats. There were 18 more people waiting as we drove away. 

The 8 mile Red Mountain Bicycle Trail runs through the scenic red Canyons, known as Little Bryce and connects to the path through Bryce Canyon. The trail is surrounded by towering cliffs and pines forest. 

That was a jam packed few days. We were glad to have gotten a couple of days in the Park's campground but thought Red Canyon NF campground looked great right along the bike path. On to Kanab for a little rest and refueling.

Hiking in the slot canyons

Hiking the Staircase

Toadstools in Escalante Staircase

On our previous visit to Lake Powell, we had taken a couple of organized tours, missing most of the Grand Staircase outback. This time we did more research to find hiking areas both on the Navajo Reservation and BLM and where to get the required permits.

On our way to the Toadstools, we also stopped at the Big Water BLM office and Dinosaur Museum for more information. There is little to no phone service out here. We wanted to be sure we were taking good roads with good directions, food and water.

 



 

Along the creek bed hiking trail, we passed variegated walls of sandstone that were quite pretty. 

Many toadstools had lost their tops from erosion.

 

  After the Toadstool hike, an easy 1.6 miles, we picked up some Subway and headed over to the Waterhole Canyon Trail on the Reservation to get in a longer hike. A $12 per person permit was required. We had to drive back to Page, go down a couple of more roads to find the office selling permits before driving back to the trailhead.

 The wind gusts were getting pretty strong, sandblasting our faces, causing us to finally call it a day and return to the Wahweep Campground to have our picnic while making better plans for our next two days of hiking.

 

 

Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch Slot Canyons 

The BLM ranger had suggested we take the hike through Wire Pass into the gorge of Buckskin Gulch of the Vermillion Cliffs of the Paria Canyon since the water in the gulch was going to be up to our waists and very cold.

We drove Highway 89 to House Rock Valley Road, turned left  and drove 8.4 miles on this dirt road. Fortunately, it had been dry and the road had been graded, which made for an easy drive, paid our $6 a person (dogs are also $6) at the trailhead and hit the trail.

 

 For 12.5 miles Buckskin Gulch is a very narrow gorge 100 to 200 feet deep, flanked by walls of Navajo Sandstone. Buckskin Gulch is renowned not only because of its continuous challenging narrows, but also because there is no other canyon like it in the world and thought to be the longest.

 We took the Wire Pass Trail to Buckskin, which is a short 3.6 miles round trip, with its narrows even more confined than those in Buckskin. Then we headed up the gulch for another mile before turning around. 

 

We enjoyed the cool 47 degrees temps as we started out.

At the end of Wire Pass Slot is a big rock with a big drop for our short legs. We turned around when we could tell how to get down safely and found a trail that went along the top of the gorge and climbed over and back down.

Below is the exit of the slot and a scramble down. The trail got more beautiful as we hiked. I took so many pictures it was difficult to chose which to post.



The petroglyph arch at the confluence of Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch.

As we continued through Buckskin, the water wasn't very deep.

We thought we would try to climb over the rocks on the way out.

Mike made it with me telling him where to place his feet.

I reached a place where I needed a little boost and was glad that I kept my pack on. Mike grabbed the pack and gave it a little pull so I wouldn't fall backwards.

 

Our blue truck turned red after driving on the dusty roads.

Waterholes Canyon on Navajo Tribal Land

On our third day of hiking, we drove out of Page 3 miles on Copper Mine Road to Le Chee to purchase the $12 per person permit to hike on Tribal Land. Then drove back to the small parking area on Highway 89  for our hike. We only saw 2 other people on the way in but a few more as we exited the canyon. There was also no one pushing us along to hurry us like the Antelope Canyon Tours.

We finally found the place to purchase the permit to hike.

We found the cairns leading us into the canyon.



The sandstone was nice and grippy but I still crab walked when the sand was loose.

 

 

The clouds came over making the photos better.

 At the top of the ladder was a very narrow path we had to squeeze through.

 

 After returning to the trail head, we walked to the highway 89 bridge and found the car that had wrecked off of it and another ladder. It was another short hike of 3 miles round trip and a little extra walking but a good morning walk.

 

We have some longer hikes planned once we leave Lake Powell. It is definitely good to be back on the road. We are finding that there are more people from Asia and Europe than ever visiting our treasures.



The stars shine so brightly in the very dark sky at night as we sit by our fire at night.