Bushwhacking In Grand Staircase-Escalante

Conditions are ideal right now to hike, bike and jeep the colorful deserts in southern Utah, and there is no better location than Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Grand Staircase includes Calf Creek Falls and a few other famous attractions. The rest of the huge monument, which encompasses almost 2 million acres of public land, is mostly remote, rugged, classic Western landscape that seldom sees visitors.

Opportunities for recreation are limitless here. Below is a sample, a description of a recent trip I enjoyed in the monument.

Sunset Arch
We parked along the Fortymile Ridge Road and bushwhacked into the desert, searching for a beautiful rock formation called Sunset Natural Arch. There is no trail, hence the need to bushwhack, busting through the terrain, wandering, hoping to find the little-known wonder.

We did wander a bit, even though I carried a GPS and knew latitude and longitude coordinates for the arch (37.3758 N 111.0480 W). In this country you can't hike in a straight line. We wove in and out of washes, skirted hills and climbed over boulders, all the while constantly readjusting our course to keep us aiming at the arch.

We crested a hill and a small arch appeared in front of us. "What," I wondered out loud, realizing it didn't look anything like the impressive arch I'd seen in photos. I consult the GPS and it said hike forward. We moved ahead, skirting more rocky outcroppings. Suddenly the real Sunset Arch appeared dead ahead. The small arch, apparently unnamed, was just a precursor to the main event.

We arrived just before sunset, in plenty of time to set up photography equipment and also play on the rocks before the light began to fail. It was a fun, relatively easy hike to a very photogenic structure.

We camped at Dance Hall Rock. The next morning we canyoneered Forty-Mile Gulch and Willow Gulch, hiking under stunning Broken Bow Arch and down to Lake Powell. These are scenic slot canyons where you hike, wade and scramble over obstacles. Technical gear is not needed in these moderately difficult canyons.

Hole-In-The-Rock
This area is accessed via Hole-In-The-Rock Road, out of the town of Excalante. The dirt road, sandy in spots, becomes rougher as you travel south. A high-clearance vehicle is needed, and four-wheel drive may be needed if you want to drive to the bottom - to the crack where hardy pioneers blasted a route down into Glen Canyon, using a block-and-tackle setup to lower wagons and cattle down the cliff face.

It is important to keep a historic perspective about this unique place. Putting my air-conditioned SUV into four-wheel-drive as I cross a section of deep sand, I could visualize what traveling must have been like for the 250 members of the Hole-In-The-Rock Expedition. In 83 covered wagons, with 1000 head of cattle, they blazed a "short cut" from Escalante to settle what is now the town of Bluff. When they left they expected the journey to take six weeks, but it stretched on for six months.

There is a plaque on the cliff identifying the Hole-In-The-Rock. It is worth the long, washboardy drive into this scenic country in the middle of nowhere. As you gaze down the cliff, the sandstone bearing groves carved by wagon wheels, you wonder how they ever made it. The site is a monument to their formidable pioneer spirit.

But consider this: The Hole-In-The-Rock Road north of Glen Canyon, which has become a popular recreational route, that was the easy part. The real challenge came as they crossed the uncharted wilderness south of the river - through an area that is virtually impenetrable even with modern four-wheel-drive vehicles. I know because I've tried to drive that section.

Amazingly, the expedition suffered no deaths. In fact, two babies were born en-route. Read more about the Hole-In-The-Rock Expedition.

Right now the desert is vibrant with spring color. Indian paintbrush is wearing bright red/orange; there are fuchsia flowers on cacti; the sage is a smoky gray-green and there is even green grass growing on hillsides. This is a beautiful time to explore southern Utah's Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monument.

- Dave Webb

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