It was beautiful in Dixie National Forest by the Red Canyon, but it was time to move on. Our next stop was the area of town called Escalante and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It's a huge territory betwee "89" (south), Bryce (west), "12" (norh) and Capitol Reef (east). Almost 2 million acres of wilderness, canyons, rocks and old trails leading God knows where.
Grand Staircase has a very appropriate names. It is a grand staircase. In one of visitors center there was a really good makieta, showing it. Staircase starts in Grand Canyon. As they said in one of the leaflets it is more than six thousand vertical feet of alternating cliffs, slopes, and terraces make up this giant staircase, which extends horizontally about 150 miles from the north rim of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona to the top of the Paunsaugunt Plateau in southern Utah. Every stair of this staircase shows cliffs, amphitheatres. One can feel really small thinking how far it has to climb...
Despite we tried really hard finally we had to pay for camping, second time in Utah. And this is how it happened: we found a free campsite before (thanks to Marianne/Shunpiker Frugal Guide to Southern Utah), but as the area is within National Monument, to stay there overnight we needed a (free) permit from BLM. We stopped at BLM office in Cannonville to get it, but due to budget cuts it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. In the past Americans dealt with crisis by investing in national parks and public areas, now it looks they followed Europe's example and they cut costs. And the victims are of course the innocent by passers, like, in this case, us.
We thought for a minute what to do, we even went to the site we wanted to stay at. We thought that if we don't see a sign prohibiting overnight camping we'll stay and if someone ask we'd say we didn't know we needed a permit. But then we gave it up. There was a dirt road to the campsite, and a sign saying that in case of the rain the road is impassable. Meanwhile there was a dark cloud hanging over our heads. We took it as an omen and decided not to risk.
So maybe a state park campground? For some reason we remembered that campground in Kodachrome State Park is 6 USD. It wasn't. It was 16 USD. For a site with no hookups? No, thank you. We ended up at paid campground in Escalante - for us it was less than 4 USD, because we used a coupon from Good Sam's Club for 25 USD discount. Plus a nice lady at the campground let us leave a trailer next day until the evening, so we could explore the area, change the oil in our car and charge everything that needed to be charged.
The town Escalante itself is not very interesting. It's proud of having the most impressive quarter of historic buildings from the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th in Utah. It looks interesting on the map, but in reality the buildings often fall apart and are hardly visible from behind newer buildings or the bushes. But being in between national parks of Utah, Escalante is working really hard on its marketing... There is also a trail for a hike along Escalante river. Not worth it. After more or less an hour walk on a path among cows' poops we gave up. We should thank a snake that was crawling across the path for making this decision easier.
For the next night we were better prepared. We got a permit from BLM (we've seen them later in boxes by the trailheads, so the visit to the office might be not necessary, but just to be on the safe side...). Lady in the office when we said we wanted a permit asked us where we wanted to camp. We pointed to the map - Burr Trail Road by Boulder. Oh, there is a pretty campground there, just 4 USD per night - she said. But we want for free, with no amenities or hookups - we said. That's perfect - she said - there are no hookups there. It was difficult to explain that we don't like to pay for something we can have for free…
Beafore we moved further to north-east we went on one more very back road called Hole-in-the-Rock Road. It's another example of Mormon obedience and perseverance to orders from SLC headquarters, namely Brigham Young. He thought of this road and he decided to cross wilderness of Utah woth a trail from Escalante south-east to one of the settlements there. He sent 200 settelers there and they built the road until they came across a tiny problem: Colorado river in a deep canyon. So they carved a hole in the rock - a road going slightly downhill to the river. From there they just needed a ferry and problem was solved.
We drove just a little part of Hole-in-the-Rock Road to one of recommended trails in Escalante, called Devil's Garden. Whole road is almost 200 miles long and is really bumpy. We would get too tired and we wouldn't care for the beautiful views at the end, so we decided to skip it. But for those with better cars it might be an interesting trip.
Devil’s Garden was one of the first devil's places on our southern Utah tour. It was getting a bit devilish in Bryce Canion, but hell really starts east from Escalante. Trails over there have names like Satan’s Gut, there is also the favourite river of Wild West outlaws like Butch Cassidy: Dirty Devil River.
Devil’s Garden is full of interesting rock formations, there are some mushrooms, some kinda-arches, some splashed shapes like from Picasso's paintings. Maciek had a lot of fun there. Besides you don't have to walk too far in the sun. Devil’s Garden is just by the parking. Another good thing about it is that Escalante is not an important stop for tourists in Utah, so there are no crowds there. By Devil’s Garden there are picnic tables, toilets and grills. We didn't take our picnic baskets with us, but it is a nice place for this kind of entertainment (the only disadventage is not enough shadow…).
Hole-in-the-Rock has much more tempting attractions. There are some nice slot canyons. We were tempted for a second but we were getting tired (Kalina is getting really heavy and she moves a lot so it's difficult to kcarry her in a snuggly), besides they were more than 14 miles from Devil’s Garden). There are also, of course, free campsites on Hole-in-the-Rock. We didn't stay there but if you ever need directions we know where to find them.
Escalante has more to offer in the area but we had to skip it as it was too far for us. There are Lower Calf Creek waterfalls we wish we could've seen. It's a 6-miles round trip walk. We made it to The Wave, but we would've made it crawling there. This time we passed. The road to the waterfall is very picturesue, there are also some Indian ruins and rock art. We've seen the canyon later on from "12", which runs above it, and it looks like a place we want to see some day.
We left the town of Escalante pretty late, after getting back from Devil’s Garden, and we moved not much further, to Burr Trail Road, just passed Boulder. It is also a very scenic road, first 30 miles is paved then it gets very narrow, steep, gravel and even more pretty. It leads, through the back door, to Capitol Reef National Park. We didn't try it as it's not recomended for trailers.
But even those first few miles on Burr Trail Road was enough to be amazed. And the campsite was fantastic. After 5-5.5 miles from "12” there is a turn, just passed the speed limit sign saying 35. On the right there is a gravel turnout and a large, old tree in the middle of the square. Under the tree there is a good spot for large rvs, Smaller rvs and tents can go a bit further, hide from the road and stay just by the wash. Peace and quiet (nobody goes there after dark), fire, stars...we miss it already...
Six miles further down the road there is a small slot canyon, or rather a slot in a tall rock, It's described in a leaflet about Escalante as "Long Canyon Slot”. It's really short, but it's charming. We went there on the next day. After that we hooked the trailer back to our car and we went on to Capitol Reef, which, as it is with those Utah names, is neither a Capitol, nor a Reef. But it wasn't difficult to figure out where the name came from…
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