Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
We planned a couple of days here on our way to Bryce National Park. I only found two RV parks in Escalante that we could fit in. I chose
Escalante Cabins & RV Park based on the good rating on RV Park Reviews and Good Sam. This RV park is new and only into their 2nd season; it seems they are having some growing pains. The pictures on their website are from last year and looked better then what we saw but they didn't do well over the winter and the grounds showed it. It's early season and still been cold here; give it a month or two for the trees and grass to start growing and it should look better. The positives about the park were that the sites are long and wide and our site #R-22 was easy to get in and out of and mostly level. Once we got the rig positioned right our jacks had no problem leveling. The park is set off the road a little and since we were towards the back we had no road noise from Highway 12. WIFI was good and we had good satellite reception. The negatives: low water pressure, so problematic we used our pump for showers and it was dusty which more gravel on the RV sites and roads would help. Overall for there not being much else in the area it was adequate for a few nights.
I should take the time here to mention a little about our drive on Highway 12 in a big RV. From UT-24 at Torrey, UT we got on UT-12 and drove west for 64.3 miles to Escalante. This section of HWY 12 has lots of turns and steep grades (we saw a sign outside of Torrey that said 14% grade ahead). Mike did great, nothing our rig couldn't handle. We read lots of stories from people saying they wouldn't drive it in a big rig but we felt if you take it slow and pay attention it's really not so bad and definitely a scenic drive (for the passenger, anyway).
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| The Hogback |
Our first hike was the Lower Calf Creek Falls Trail. Access to the trail head is just off of UT-12 about 14 miles east of Escalante. When driving in we saw the
Kiva Koffehouse so we decided to stop there before the hike for an espresso. Interesting place in the middle of nowhere that serves breakfast/lunch/coffee,
unfortunately, the espresso machine was broken when we stopped but was still a great place to stop and take in the views.
Lower Calf Creek Falls Trail is an easy-moderate hike of 6 miles RT, not much elevation but the trail is sandy in a lot of places. When you reach the falls it is a WOW factor of 8 and peaceful if you do the hike in the morning. We started the hike at around 9am and didn't see a lot of people at the falls but when we started our hike back it was clearly getting busy.
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| Approaching the falls |
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| WOW...... |
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| Looks inviting, but it was cold..... |
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| No people, lots of time for photos. |
The next day we did a 2nd hike to the
Escalante Natural Bridge, a 4 mile RT, fairly easy hike. The trail head is just outside of Escalante off of HWY 12, with parking at the trail head. There are 6 river crossings so plan on getting your feet wet. They were easy crossings and most were ankle deep and one was mid-calf. This is something to keep in mind if it rains; the crossings could get deeper. When you get to the bridge look for a small social trail on the other side of the last crossing, this will take you under the bridge for some great photos. I read about bugs but we didn't run into any until the bridge, the mosquitoes were bad there, we didn't linger. The shade and moisture probably didn't help, so I would recommend bug spray.
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| Trail head access |
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| River Crossing #1 |
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| Crossing #2 |
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| Crossing #3 |
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| Crossing #4 |
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| Crossing #5 |
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| Almost there |
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| Crossing #6 |
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| Small trail will lead you under the bridge |
Next Up: Bryce National Park, UT
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