Escalante Grand Staircase
Sun drenched utah backcountry spreads out well beyond the visible horizon from the road whether youre traveling along the the all american road.
Escalante grand staircase. But its relatively new to us humans. There as been recent talks among politicians to shut down two of utah national monuments. Grand staircase is the westernmost section of the monument and is most easily accessed from tropic cannonville or henrieville near kodachrome basin state park on highway 12also known as scenic byway 12 and kanab or big water on us. Scenic byway 12 or on highway 89.
The canyons of the escalante provide amazing drives and beautiful slot canyons to explore. Unfortunately theyre two ive visited the least. Deep within this vast and austere landscape the anasazi and fremont cultures made contact in the period ad 950 1100 leaving behind rock art panels occupation sites campsites and granaries. Depending on where you stand grand staircaseescalante national monument has been quietly doing its thing for between 275 million and 50 million years.
The grand staircaseescalante national monument gsenm is a united states national monument originally designated in 1996 as 1880461 acres 7610 km 2 of protected land in southern utahin 2017 the monuments size was reduced by a succeeding presidential proclamationthe land is among the most remote in the country. See all 10 grand staircase escalante national monument tours on tripadvisor. It was the last to be mapped in the contiguous united states. The allure of the grand staircase region the bulk of which is contained in the grand staircaseescalante national monument is phenomenal.
The 17 million acres of desert became the nations newest national monument in september 1996. It was the last part of the lower 48 united states to get cartographed and once people started poking. The grand staircase escalante national monument utah is an area of plateaus sandstone canyon unique rock formations and cliffs in southern utah. We recommend booking grand staircase escalante national monument tours ahead of time to secure your spot.
The grand staircase is an immense sequence of sedimentary rock layers that stretch south from bryce canyon national park and grand staircase escalante national monument through zion national park and into the grand canyon national park. Grand staircase escalante national monument flickr album the monument is an outstanding biological resource spanning five life zones from low lying desert to coniferous forest.