If the Colorado Plateau were to become a state, it would be the country’s fifth largest (behind only Alaska, Texas, California and Montana). The plateau encompasses 130,000 square miles and stretches from western Colorado into Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. Most of the plateau is in Utah, and U.S. 89 skirts its edge beginning around Salina, Utah, and then slices right through it from Kanab, Utah to Flagstaff, Arizona.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton circumvented Congress (including an incensed Utah delegation) and designated a huge area of the plateau in southern Utah as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Besides the politicians, many southern Utahns (though certainly not all) were enraged by Clinton’s designation of the area as a national monument, which was seen by many residents of the region as a political move to garner favor with environmentalists shortly before the 1996 election. In 1992, Clinton had actually finished third in Utah, behind George Bush and Ross Perot. It can be safely assumed that Clinton didn’t figure to win Utah in 1996, either, national monument designation or not.

No one argued that the area wasn’t magnificent. But many local residents were concerned that traditional Western land uses, such as grazing and mining, would be eliminated by the designation. Indeed, a proposal for a major mining project was under consideration when the designation was made. Naturally, environmentalists were thrilled by the designation, though some wilderness advocates were concerned that the designation would allow too much development. That remains to be seen.

The region has calmed some since then and tourism has increased substantially as the region’s profile has been raised by the designation. Sandwiched between Bryce Canyon and Zion on the west, the Grand Canyon on the south, Capitol Reef on the north and Arches and Canyonlands on the east, the region had often been overlooked by people planning visits to the West. Edward Abbey’s books, including Desert Solitaire and the fictional Monkey Wrench Gang (which helped fuel the radical environmental movement that the Glen Canyon Dam helped spawn), had featured the area, as had the writings of other authors such as Wallace Stegner, who wrote, among other books, the classic Mormon Country. Despite that, the region still had remained in relative obscurity. That is changing.

The “Grand Staircase” is a succession of cliffs running northeast of the Utah-Arizona border, beginning with the Vermillion Cliffs at about 4,500 above sea level east of Kanab. The next “step” is the White Cliffs south of Bryce Canyon. Next are the Gray Cliffs southeast of Escalante. Bryce Canyon makes up the final step, or Pink Cliffs, which range between 7,500 and 9,000 feet above sea level.

While tourism to the Escalante region is light compared to that for Utah’s national parks, heavy visitation is nothing new to Lake Powell, the reservoir created by the Glen Canyon Dam that submerged hundreds of miles of slick rock and slot canyons. The lake is a scenic wonder itself, though arguments still rage about the advisability of inundating the canyon country with a reservoir that has more coastline than the U.S. Pacific coast. The reservoir changed the nature of the Colorado River downstream – instead of meandering as a warm and silty red river through the Grand Canyon, it exits the dam cold and green. The dam put an end to the annual spring flooding downstream – recently attempts have been made to artificially re-create the spring flooding with huge releases from the dam, with mixed results.

As with Yellowstone, it would take many lifetimes to fully explore the region covered in this chapter. Famed author Edward Abbey wandered it for decades and still saw only a small percentage of it. It is unforgiving country. Get caught without water, or, perhaps even worse, find yourself in a slot canyon during a flash flood, and the situation becomes dire. More than a dozen people on a photo expedition in Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona were swept away in a flash flood in 1997. Some bodies have never been found.

It can, however, be wandered safely and comfortably. Branching off of U.S. 89 are numerous roads leading to amazing places – including Calf Creek, Grosvenor Arch, Kodachrome Basin, Buckskin Gulch, Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Technically speaking, the Escalante area is a bit far afield from U.S. 89, but it’s simply too good to pass up. The small town of Escalante is reached on Utah Highway 12, the same road that leads to Bryce Canyon. To reach the Escalante area, exit U.S. 89 at the Bryce Canyon turnoff and stay on Utah 12 past Bryce. The highway roams through mountains and valleys for 41 miles past Bryce Canyon to Escalante (about 55 miles from U.S. 89). From here, there are numerous options to pursue, from slot canyon hiking to some of the most desolate and visually stunning back-country four-wheeling in the world. We’ll focus on just a few: Lower Calf Creek Falls, Hell’s Backbone, and Cottonwood Canyon (including Kodachrome Basin and Grosvenor Arch). If you get to the Escalante area and want to see more, there are many excellent resources available that provide detailed information on hiking and four-wheeling, the region’s two main activities.

Perhaps 15 minutes past Escalante is the trailhead to Lower Calf Creek Falls at the Calf Creek campground. This is a good hike for just about anyone, with only modest elevation changes in the five-and-a-half-mile round trip. The payoff is a gorgeous 126-foot waterfall sliding over a sandstone box canyon. It can be hiked almost any time of year, but can get a little hot in mid-summer. Take plenty of water! The hike ends at the base of the falls and a beautiful pool surrounded by trees. It’s a great place to hike to with a picnic lunch. Along the way, interpretive signs point out ancient ruins and provide information about local plants and history – pick up a trail guide at the trailhead. For the particularly ambitious, Upper Calf Creek can be reached from a separate trailhead about 10 minutes farther up Highway 12. Only a two-mile round trip, the hike is in some ways tougher than the walk to the lower falls, since it requires a climb back out of the canyon of more than 700 feet. The falls are smaller and less spectacular than the lower falls, but it’s a great scramble across sandstone. If you go, watch for poison ivy near the falls!

Another way to experience the Escalante back country is to take the Hell’s Backbone drive. Despite traversing some very rugged country, the drive is suitable for regular passenger cars, as long as a little dust is OK. To find the road, take Utah 12 past the Calf Creek area toward Boulder. About three miles before Boulder is a turnoff to Forest Service Road 153, known locally as Salt Gulch Road. That’s the one. It’s easy to follow – it’s wider than the other backroads and gets occasional grading (though it can have some pretty serious washboard in places). The road meanders through the Box-Death Hollow Wilderness (don’t let the name intimidate you), crossing through a breathtaking area known as Hell’s Backbone (again, don’t let the name intimidate you). It then heads south (and is known locally as Pine Creek Road or Posey Lake Road), eventually widening as it nears Escalante, where the road ends.

The other backcountry drive that is both rewarding and suitable for passenger cars is the Cottonwood Canyon drive. A warning – if it’s rained recently, this road is impassable, even with four wheel drive. If rain is imminent (or it’s rained hard in the past 24 hours), don’t take the drive. It’s a bumpy but fairly simple drive in dry weather.

Cottonwood Canyon Road begins at Cannonville, 13 miles west of Bryce Canyon. About 10 miles from the beginning of the road is Kodachrome Basin and Kodachrome Basin State Park, the latter of which has facilities for camping and picnicking. Kodachrome Basin features unique sandstone towers and similar features with a number of short walks and hikes for all skill and fitness levels. Even the hurried traveler should try to spend a couple of hours here. On down the dirt road is Grosvenor Arch. Watch for the turnoff about 15 miles past Kodachrome Basin – the arch is a mile or so off the main road. Grosvenor Arch is a salmon-colored double arch, unusual in that the arches are at the top of a tall sandstone column.

After returning to the main road, you travel through scenic Cottonwood Canyon. If you’re up for a little adventure, there is an excellent short slot canyon hike in Cottonwood Canyon. To find the trailhead, note your mileage from the time you leave the pavement past Cannonville. At approximately 13 miles you’ll start down a very steep drainage area before the road rises again. At the bottom of the drainage is the trailhead to the Cottonwood Narrows hike, a 1.5-mile section of narrows with hiking through the creekbed. If one of the party wants to stay behind, the one-way hike takes an hour or less. Round trip, it’s three miles, or a couple of hours. As with all such hikes, inquire locally before taking the hike and get a copy of a good topographic map of the area. If rain is possible, never venture into a slot canyon. More detailed information on slot canyons can be found later in this chapter.

The Cottonwood Canyon road eventually emerges on U.S. 89 about 45 miles east of Kanab. The whole drive from Cannonville to U.S. 89 is 46 miles.

If you choose not to see the Escalante region, U.S. 89 takes you from Mount Carmel Junction (the turnoff to Zion National Park) southeast to Kanab. This section of highway is known as the “Mt. Carmel Scenic Byway” by the state of Utah. As the road heads toward Three Lakes Canyon northwest of Kanab, the first temptation to leave the highway will come about 10 minutes outside of Mt. Carmel Junction at the turnoff to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. Iron oxide gives these dunes, which can measure more than 200 feet high, a pink hue. This is a popular ATV and dune buggy playground and features a campground and picnic area inside a 3,700-acre state park. The dunes are about 15 miles off of U.S. 89.

Once inside Three Lakes Canyon back on U.S. 89, you’ll pass Moqui Cave, which is a privately owned museum with Anasazi artifacts, a mineral collection and general information about the Kanab area.

Kanab is a typical southern Utah town with all the amenities required by travelers, including many lodging and dining options. There’s a nine-hole golf course on the eastern edge of town.

Kanab is best known as a movie site, and even though few traditional Westerns are shot by Hollywood these days, the Kanab area is still a popular backdrop for movies and commercials. Not far out of town at Johnson Canyon is the original set for Gunsmoke, which is now privately owned and open to the public year round. According to the current owners, the set has been used for more than 200 movies. The road to Johnson Canyon is nine miles east of Kanab on U.S. 89. Another half an hour down the road is the Paria movie set, built for the movie Sergeants Three. This set is not regularly maintained and has a ghost town feeling to it. Take the Paria River Valley Road about 45 miles east of Kanab. The buildings are about 15 minutes off the highway.

One of the best-kept secrets of the national park system is the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The vast majority of visitors to the Grand Canyon visit the South Rim, which is open year-round and has many more lodging options (and is easier to reach from an airport). The North Rim is 1,000 feet higher than the South Rim, is in an entirely different climate zone and has a very short season. Snow closes the North Rim from mid-October through mid-May. But for the traveler whose timing is right, the North Rim can be a better experience than the South Rim. The summer weather is cooler, the crowds are thinner and the views are no less spectacular on the North Rim.

Alternate U.S. 89, which runs south out of Kanab to Fredonia, Arizona, connects to Arizona Highway 67 at Jacob Lake. The drive from Jacob Lake to the North Rim is deceiving – it looks like you’ve returned to the alpine mountains of Montana as pine and aspen trees line the highway. There is no hint that a 6,500-foot-deep canyon is only miles away. Fall is a spectacular time to visit the North Rim (don’t wait too late, since it closes by the third week of October) – the aspens turn bright yellow and the crowds are very sparse. Since there are limited lodging options at the North Rim (besides camping), be sure to get reservations well in advance any time of year. There are few options outside the park – there is lodging at Jacob Lake and closer to the park at Kaibab Lodge, but Fredonia and Kanab are 90 minutes away. There are even fewer dining options inside the park on the North Rim – a snack bar, a grocery store and a full-service dining room. The dining room requires reservations up to a month in advance for dinner during peak season. If you wait until evening, you could be entirely out of luck or sit down to your meal well after 9 p.m.

The North Rim affords perhaps the most spectacular view of the Grand Canyon at Cape Royal, at the end of a paved drive that runs east and south from the Grand Canyon Lodge area. This view looks west down the throat of the canyon and must be seen to be believed.

Hiking from the North Rim is particularly strenuous, especially if your destination is the canyon floor, because the North Rim is a thousand feet higher than the south. Most view areas offer short rim trails. If the trail ends, don’t venture farther – there’s a reason the trail stopped. Some day hiking alternatives from the North Rim:

• Uncle Jim Trail. This is an excellent choice to get a feel for Grand Canyon hiking without the exertion of dropping into the canyon. This hike is a relatively flat four-mile round trip, depending on loop options you choose. If you hike the full four miles, carry some water.
• North Kaibab. A 10-mile round trip that will test the most fit, this requires an elevation drop of 3,000 to Roaring Springs. It’s a 30-mile round trip to the Colorado River on this popular trail, requiring a day to hike down, a night at the bottom, and a day to hike back out.

Early morning and the hour immediately before sunset are the best times to view the Grand Canyon and to take pictures. One photo hint: When photographing the Grand Canyon, be aware that there is a lot of contrasting light. Set your exposure to capture the mid-tones, which will result in a slight over-exposure of brighter areas, and shadowed areas will fade into the picture but not distract from the quality of the image.

There’s another view of the Grand Canyon that few visitors get to see – the Toroweap section. Toroweap is accessible by passenger car via a reasonably good dirt road and is a breathtaking place. To get there, go to Fredonia, Arizona and head west on Arizona Highway 389. About 10 miles out of town is the turnoff to the Mount Trumbull Loop road (if you get to Pipe Spring National Monument you’ve gone too far). The road runs southwest in the area known locally as the Arizona Strip – the no-man’s land between the Grand Canyon and the Utah border. The road eventually connects with Toroweap Road, which leads you past a ranger outpost and to the primitive Toroweap camping area. It’s about a 90-minute to two-hour drive one way. If you decide to go, inquire locally or pick up a topographic map that shows the road – this is no place to get lost. There are no facilities of any kind in the Toroweap region.

Toroweap is inside Grand Canyon National Park, but it gets a comparative handful of visitors. Here, the walls to the canyon floor are more sheer than the traditional Grand Canyon vistas. Whereas the canyon at the North and South Rims is marked by many gradations in color and elevation change, the canyon at Toroweap drops suddenly and spectacularly. (This is the general area where Robby Knievel successfully jumped the canyon on a motorcycle in 1999.) There are no fences or guardrails here, so exercise extreme caution near the edge. Return the same way you entered the area.

By the way, the aforementioned Pipe Spring National Monument is an interesting stop to history buffs, particularly those interested in Mormon history. The spring, long known by native Pueblos and Paiutes, was turned into a fort by Mormon settlers in the late 1800s. Walking interpretive tours are available.

For more on hiking and viewing the Grand Canyon, see Chapter 11.

Mention Lake Powell to some folks and you’re liable to start a fight, or at least a heated discussion. Many trace the beginnings of the modern environmental movement to the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam, which inundated some of the world’s most spectacular slot canyons and desert wilderness. The dam was completed in 1964 and sparked fantasies by folks like author Edward Abbey of blowing it up (read his Monkey Wrench Gang and see if you agree). More recently, the National Sierra Club has voted to support breaching the dam and returning the Colorado to its free-flowing state as it approaches the Grand Canyon. By now, of course, many of the canyons have filled with silt (a point environmentalists use to support their cause).

But to many others, Lake Powell is a paradise. Though only 186 miles long, it has nearly 2,000 miles of coastline as the reservoir slithers into hundreds of side canyons running its entire length. The Glen Canyon National Recreation Area attracts as many visitors as the most popular national parks, most of whom find one way or another to enjoy the water. Houseboating has become a favorite activity. Naturally, the lake is also full of boats and personal watercraft almost any time of the year. Summer is the peak time, but the season begins in very early spring and extends well into autumn.

Of course, the Glen Canyon Dam, rising more than 500 feet from the river, also generates electricity (1.3 million kilowatts to be exact) which lights many parts of the Southwest. Tours of the dam are available at the Carl Hayden Visitors Center on the west side of the dam.

A must-visit site on Lake Powell is Rainbow Bridge National Monument, the world’s largest natural bridge spanning 275 feet. The bridge is most easily reached by boat. Rentals are available at several marinas, or guided half-day or full-day excursions take visitors to the site. Rainbow Bridge is of religious significance to the Navajo Tribe, and visitors are asked to treat the site with respect.

Page, Arizona owes its existence to the Glen Canyon Dam, and is now a convenient jumping-off place for visits to Lake Powell (just minutes away) and the slot canyons mentioned in this chapter. The Colorado River region between the Glen Canyon Dam and the Grand Canyon also offers white water rafting through any number of experienced outfitters. Lake Powell lodging is available at Wahweap Marina near Page and at Bullfrog Basin, which is reachable by boat on the lake or via a long (very long) detour by land. Page is only a couple of miles from the dam and has a good variety of lodging and dining options, as well as two golf courses, one of which, the Lake Powell National, is a particularly good new layout with superb views of the lake.

You’ve undoubtedly seen the pictures of the slot canyons of the Colorado Plateau, especially if you’ve wandered other parts of U.S. 89. Stop at photo studios in Jackson or Salt Lake City and you’ll see them. The pictures of the magical slot canyons unique to this part of the world can be found throughout southern Utah and northern Arizona as well. Slot canyons are narrow canyons formed by wind and water through the desert sandstone that may be only two feet across at the bottom and rise on both sides a hundred or more feet. There are such canyons in the Escalante area and throughout southeastern Utah. Similar canyons can be found in Zion National Park. Along U.S. 89 there are two slot canyon areas of particular note: Buckskin Gulch west of Page in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the Antelope Canyons of the Navajo Nation just east of Page, Arizona.

First, a note of caution. A slot canyon can be a deathtrap in a flash flood. There are many tales of lives lost during heavy rains that can send a 40-foot wall of water rushing down a slot canyon. Before entering any slot canyon, be certain that rainstorms are not likely, either in the area directly above the canyon or in watershed areas adjacent to the canyon. It’s best to inquire locally for expert advice. August and September are the monsoon season on the Colorado Plateau when afternoon and evening thunderstorms are common. Spring rain showers are not unusual, either. June or July are the ideal months to visit the slot canyons, if you can handle the heat, or late fall is another good option.

Of the two canyons discussed here, Buckskin Gulch is the more satisfying hike, but the Antelope Canyons are the more visually spectacular (and most convenient to visit). Either will provide you with an experience you can have nowhere else.

Buckskin Gulch is the epitome of slot canyons to many desert hikers and a popular spot in late spring through mid-summer. It’s not quite as mystical in nature as the Antelope Canyons near Page, but the hike into and out of Buckskin is a world class experience nonetheless. To find the trailhead, take a dirt road less than a mile from milepost 25 on U.S. 89, about 38 miles east of Kanab (about 34 miles west of Page). The clearly marked trailhead is about eight and a half miles down the dirt road. To enter Buckskin Gulch, you must first hike through Wire Pass. The hike is fairly uneventful for the first mile or so, but then you enter the first stretch of narrows that can squeeze down to as little as two feet in width. From here, there are narrows through Wire Pass and in either direction at Buckskin Gulch, which begins where it forms a “T” with Wire Pass. You can make the hike as long or as short as you wish – just make sure you know where you’re at and how to find the exit. It’s best if you can make this hike with someone who has done it before. If that’s not possible, there are a number of excellent hiking guidebooks on the Grand Staircase region that provide helpful tips and maps.

The Antelope Canyons are an entirely different experience. To find the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons, drive east out of Page on Arizona Highway 98 about three miles. On the right will be a sign for Antelope Canyon. This is the staging area where the Navajo charge guests to ride into Upper Antelope Canyon. The drive takes you right up to the mouth of the canyon, which is only about a football field long. But what it lacks in length it makes up for in remarkable scenery.

The best time to visit Upper Antelope Canyon is in the summer between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. During this time, shafts of light from the overhead sun will stream into the canyon at various angles and positions, creating a visual world unlike any you will have ever seen. Too many people spend an hour in the canyon and leave. If your schedule allows it, stay for at least two and up to four hours. The canyon will look vastly different as the light changes.

A number of private tour companies in Page take groups into canyon. This can be a good way to go, particularly if you want to take pictures. Tour operators can help you understand the canyon’s geology and history and provide helpful tips on the difficult photographic conditions inside the canyon. For amateur photographers, studying the conditions in the canyon beforehand is a must, and taking an experienced photo tour guide with you isn’t a bad idea, if you can afford it.

A couple of quick tips: Don’t think you can go into the canyon with any camera, use a flash, and get a decent photo. Good shots in slot canyons require long exposures using existing natural light (depending on film speed and lighting, exposures can be from three seconds to three minutes). For this type of photography, high quality film, a tripod and some basic photographic knowledge are essential. In general, set your exposure to capture the mid-tones and allow the darker and lighter areas to under- and over-expose.

Lower Antelope Canyon is accessed from the other side Arizona 98 and also requires a fee paid to the Navajo Nation. It looks similar to the upper canyon but is much longer as it descends toward Lake Powell and is much more difficult to explore, with ropes and ladders providing access in some places. Also, this is the site of the tragic drowning of 14 amateur photographers in 1997 when a flash flood raced through the canyon. Besides creating a potential danger to hikers, flash floods also are constantly changing the canyons. Floods can raise or lower the canyon floors by more than 15 or 20 feet as they either scour the sandstone floors out or deposit new silt.