kayaking on Loch Leven near Glencoe, Scotland, 2018

kayaking on Loch Leven near Glencoe, Scotland, 2018

Monday, September 26, 2016

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah

In part 5 of my 7-part series on our Utah National Park vacation, I take you to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. This website calls this destination a "big empty playground for off-roaders, canyoneers, and regular old hikers." It is the size of the state of Delaware within the state of Utah, yet it was another one of those places I'd never heard of until this trip. We added this gem to our itinerary because Andrew wanted to experience hiking in slot canyons.


So we hired this off-road jeep driver to drive us an hour each way down a bumpy dirt road to the area with slot canyons with names like Spooky and Peek-a-Boo.



Long story short, we got a bit lost for awhile, and we didn't have time to see all we wanted to see, but overall, it was a fun day.


It's was pretty muddy in spots.


This was a hard part.


Also nearby, we found Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. I had never seen petrified wood before, and had always assumed it was just wood that had turned into rock. But in fact, petrified wood is incredibly colorful -- red, orange, purple, yellow -- like unpolished gemstones. I was fascinated.


Next stop, Bryce Canyon, where we all took more photos than at any other park. Stay tuned and you'll see why!

2 comments:

Common Household Mom said...

That's some pretty wild and interesting terrain you were in. Looks like a tight squeeze inbetween some of those giant rocks.

Angie Kay Dilmore said...

Yes, CHM, the slots we were in were narrow, but we discovered later we were not even in the most narrow slots. Andrew was disappointed.