Directions: Visitor Center at 745 East Highway 89, Kanab.
Distance from Kanab:
In Town (
Map )
The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is possibly the world’s most dramatic natural staircase. Spanning 1.7 million acres of multi-hued cliffs, twisting canyons, expansive plateaus, and all sorts of buttes, pinnacles, and mesas, the Monument contains a spectacular array of scientific and historic resources. Declared to be a national monument by President Clinton in 1996, the Grand Staircase-Escalante is a vast natural beauty.
The Grand Staircase-Escalante contains three sections: the Grand Staircase itself, the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Canyons of the Escalante. The deep, brilliant red sandstone of the Vermillion Cliffs composes the lowermost terrace of the Grand Staircase. Above that are the sandstone White Cliffs, the shale Gray Cliffs, and the limey siltstone Pink Cliffs at the top. Together these formations expose 200 million years of the earth’s history in a massive geological library. The highest, wildest, and most remote part of the monument, the Kaiparowits Plateau, is home to a large variety of plants and animals, including thousand-year-old juniper trees and seventeen species of birds found nowhere else.
In the Monument, there are several easily accessible recreation areas, including the Devil’s Garden, the Coxcombs, and the Grosvenor Arch. There are many rugged trails for hiking, biking, off-road vehicles, and more. The Monument is open year-round, but keep weather conditions in mind.
Visitor Center, 745 East Highway 89, Kanab, Utah 84741. Call (435)-644-4680 for more information.
By Judah Evangelista - 5/22/09
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Map
