Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park
18-19 May, 2018
Hackberry Canyon.
The Grand Staircase of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a series of cliffs dropping down from Capitol Reef National Park to Lake Powell. The beautifully colored cliffs encompass 200 million years of well-preserved geologic history. [SOURCE: Roadside Geology of Utah by Felicie Williams, Lucy Chronic, and Halka Chronic] On this trip, we had time only to explore a small part of this large area, toward the west side.
Visiting this wondrous and barren place, administered not by the National Park Service but by the Bureau of Land Management, is considerably challenging. There are a few sites, like the Toadstools, that are close to major roads and can be visited by people with ordinary passenger cars. Much of it is accessible only by Jeep. While considerably more suitable for this territory than Sydney the Civic, Mather the Crosstrek was still able to handle only a few limited roads. Even in the more accessible locations, trails are poorly marked. A handheld GPS, with extra batteries, is highly recommended. Enter the Monument with a full tank of gas and extra food and water.
Regrettably, the current occupant of the White House has issued a proclamation considerably reducing the size of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and allowing mining and drilling in much of the territory that used to be part of the Monument. These are once-ever activities that can be enjoyed by one small group of human beings, ruining the area for lower-impact human activities such as sightseeing for millions of years. This act represents the height of selfishness and lack of consideration for anyone else.
Eric was pleased to discover a cafe in conservative Kanab, Utah, where the proprietors wanted to preserve rather than exploit the Monument.
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Cumulative distance driven: 2,919 km/1,814 mi
Distance hiked: 5.8 km/3.6 mi
Geocaches found: 2
On to Snow Canyon State Park.