E for Escalante National Monument #BlogchatterA2Z

 Escalante National Monument 

The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument is a protected landscape in Southern Utah. It is between the Bryce National Park and Capitol Reef National Park. 

Be aware that this area is very remote and most of the roads are primitive. The nearest family-friendly trail is Devil's Garden. You should drive on a dirt road for 12 miles from the visitor center to reach there. 

Here is our travelogue.

Love that arch and how majestic it is!

Until next time,

I'm participating in #BlogchatterA2Z

Other A2Z Posts:

A for Arches National Park

B for Bigbend National park

C for Capitol Reef National Park

D for Disney

E for Escalante National Monument

F for Fort Davis

G for Great Smoky Mountains National Park

H for Hot Springs National Park

I for Idaho Springs

J for Jackson Hole

K for Kasha Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument

L for Las Vegas

M for Monument Valley

N for Niagara Falls

O for Orlando

P for Pikes Peak

Q for Quiet and Secluded

R for Rocky Mountain National Park

S for Santa Fe

T for Talimena Scenic Drive

U for Utah

V for Vermont

W for White Sands National Park

X for Xtreme Weather

Y for Yellowstone National Park

Z for Zion National Park

I give you one travel recommendation for each letter of the alphabet. So, follow my blog every day in April for travel recommendations.

I might post these on social media as well, here are the links if you want to follow me there..

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Goblin Valley State park : Cute Goblins and Hoodoos

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Goblin Valley State Park in Utah is a fun place to stop while visiting the Mighty 5. Goblin Valley will sure blow you off with thousands of cute rock formations - Goblins (mushroom shaped rocks) and hoodoos. 

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How to Reach?

Goblin Valley State park is around 100 miles from Moab, Utah and 80 miles (1.5 hrs) from Capitol Reef National Park making it an easy spot to cover when you visit Arches/ Canyon Lands/ Capitol Reef National park.

To Rent a car

Read the previous travelogues here:

Zion National Park - Part1

Zion National Park - Part2

Bryce Canyon National Park

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Capitol Reef National park

Geography:

The distinct shape of these rocks are due to an erosion resistant layer on the top of soft sandstones. These formations encourage your imagination as there are many shapes to see. These are formed  due to water and rain whisking away the rock grain by grain creating the hoodoos that we see now. This process took more than millions of years and this landscape still continues to change.

Cool Mushroom / Goblin

We spent half day in the Goblin valley state park. We started from Torrey in the morning after breakfast, reached the Goblin valley around 11 am. We visited the park in Early June, so it's pretty hot. 

Things to know before you visit:

Entrance fee is $20 / vehicle. There are restrooms at the entrance booth. There are no restrooms near the parking area. From the entrance booth, when we drive further, the road forks. If we take left, we cross the rock formation 'Three Sisters' and reach the parking lot.

The parking lot has an observation point with picnic tables. It's good to have a snack watching the Goblins if it's too hot to hike. Stairs lead to the Goblin valley from Parking lot.

Weather:

This place is remote and weather is unpredictable. We visited in early June but still it is very hot. There is no shaded area around other than the observation point. 

So, drink plenty of water and carry sunscreen, hat and some snacks.

I use Neutrogena and my kids use Coppertone sunscreen. 

Check these Sun hats for Men and Women. 

This trail mix bag is our go to snack for every hike. 

Love Chobani yogurt always. Filling and cool for summer.

Where to find Goblins?

There are 3 valleys , but most of the park is unmarked and it is difficult to navigate. The first few Goblins that you see when you get down the stairs is Valley 1. This is a fun place even for little kids. The goblins are small , cute and dense. They can even climb on some.

Does it look like a Duck?

Valley 1

We walked further away from parking lot  until we reached a wall and had to go around it right side to reach Valley 2. Here we can see a lot of hoodoos and Goblins which are larger in height. There is a marking to denote it's Valley 2, but it is barely visible. 

There is Valley 3 when we go further, but we couldn't understand better path. Valley 3 has a trail called Goblin's Lair, which is a narrow slot canyon. We couldn't go that further due to heat. 

We retraced our steps navigating towards the parking lot and returned to Observation point. We had a snack and started back to Las Vegas to complete our Southern Utah trip.

If you have kids, try to cover this destination and spend 2 to 3 hrs. Kids will thank you for that. My kids enjoyed taking photos with these goblins and also climbing on them.

Until next time,

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2023

One day at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

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The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument is a protected landscape which spans across 1.87 million acres public lands in Southern Utah. This monument is on the way from Bryce Canyon National Park to Capitol Reef National park on scenic highway 12.

Read the previous travelogues here:

Zion National Park - Part1

Zion National Park - Part2

Bryce Canyon National Park

Escalante National Monument:

In the 1870s, geologist Clarence Dutton described the Grand Staircase as a 

"huge stairway ascending out of the bottom of the Grand Canyon northward with the cliff edge of each layer forming giant steps." 

These steps rise 5500' from the floor of the Grand Canyon to  Bryce Canyon. The distinct steps are the Vermilion Cliffs, the White Cliffs, the Gray Cliffs and the Pink Cliffs.

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How to Reach?

We flew to Las Vegas and drove to Hurricane to visit Zion, stayed in Panguitch to visit Bryce Canyon National Park and drove from Bryce to Escalante by renting a car. 

Here are a few economical options to fly to Las Vegas:

Where to Stay:

We took accommodation in Circle D motel in Escalante. It's clean and perfect. No breakfast but the rooms are well maintained. This is nearer to Hole-on-the-rock road.

Here are some options to stay near Escalante National Monument:

Hiking Trails:

Cannonville:

On highway 12, on the way to Escalante, there are many interesting spots to visit. Cannonville is around 20 mins from Bryce Canyon. This is considered to be an easy hike to watch slot canyons. Start at Willis creek trailhead and after first 1.3 miles you will be in the narrow part of slot canyon. 

Kodachrome Basin State Park :

This park is about 7 miles from Cannonville. There are multiple hiking trails in this park, but Grosvenor arch seemed interesting and easy to hike. Grosvenor arch trail is easy 0.2 miles trail but the drive through dirt road to reach parking lot might be a little tough. This double arch is seen in a lot of Escalante travel brochures. 

Image by LoggaWiggler from Pixabay

Cedar wash arch in the same area is 1 mile hike. You can pair it with covered wagon natural bridge.

We couldn't cover Cannonville and Kodachrome Basin State Park as it's very remote and needs a lot of driving on dirt roads, but we will do these trails some other time.  

Escalante monument is remote and have many primitive roads to drive. We reached Escalante in the evening from Bryce canyon national park. We checked into our hotel and started our drive to 'Hole on the Rock' road.

The'Hole-in-the-rock' trail extends from Escalante to Bluff. It is a short cut used my Mormon pioneers to cross the Colorado river. 

Devil's Garden:

Devil's Garden is a good family friendly place to visit in Escalante National monument. You can visit the visitor center and drive 12 miles on Hole-on-The-Rock road from Scenic byway 12 to reach the parking lot for Devil's Garden. 

Hole-on-The-Rock road is very washboard and so ,you have to drive slowly. Expect a lot of driving time even though it's 12 miles. You don't need a 4 wheel drive though.

From the parking lot, it's a short hike of 0.4 miles in between hoodoos, rock formations and arches. This arch is so huge and looked spectacular. 

This place was very nice during sunset, but we couldn't stay long as the drive back to hotel is tough on this road without day light.

Love this pic.. looks dramatic :-)

Peek a boo and Spooky Slot Canyons:

These slot canyons are at dry fork road when you drive 26 miles on Hole-on-The-Rock road from Scenic byway 12. Since the road is primitive and it's already evening, we couldn't go to these canyons on that day.

This total hike is 3.5 miles loop. You have to hike 1.4 miles to reach Peek a boo gulch, after you exit this canyon, you have to hike 0.5 miles to reach Spooky gulch. This is a tough hike to do with kids and the place is remote too. But, I heard it's one of the best hikes as kids will enjoy these slot canyons. Just plan ahead, carry more water and snacks. Give it more time.

Lower Calf Creek Falls:

The next day morning we planned to cover Lower calf creek falls and Anasazi State park museum on the way to Torrey. But, we were super tired after the hikes from Bryce and Zion, so couldn't attempt to hike 6 miles to visit Lower calf creek falls.

Escalante Natural Bridge:

This is a 3.5 mile loop trail to reach the huge Escalante Natural bridge. But, it's tough with younger kids as there are multiple river crossings to reach the bridge.

The drive from Escalante to Torrey was fantastic. The roads, scenic views,  ups and downs, rock formations etc., were very scenic. 

Just before reaching Torrey, the scenery changed a lot. Many Aspen trees and mountain views were similar to the scenery in Colorado.

Here are some food options around:

• Circle D Eatery
• Escalante Outfitters Pizza
• Nemo's
• Kiva coffee house - best hot chocolate
• Magnolia's street food - food truck , breakfast burritos
• Burr trail grill in Boulder between Grandstaircase and Capitol reef

Our Next stop is Capitol Reef National Park. We definitely under-estimated this park thinking it won't be as good as Zion or Bryson. It proved us wrong. Capitol Reef is beautiful and there is a lot to hike there.

More details on my next travelogue.

Until next time,

Day 3 : Pagosa Springs and Crestone #UtahVacation

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Before going to our Day 3 travelogue, please go through below posts to follow the itinerary.

Utah Vacation Plan with Kids

Day 1 - Arches National Park and Canyonlands National park

Day 2 - Monument Valley Park and Four Corners National monument

Day 2 - Mesa Verde National Park

We reached our hotel in Pagosa Springs on the night of day 2 itself. We intentionally took more rest on day 3 instead of visiting places. When we plan any vacation with kids, this is very important. Continuous traveling will impact kids making them cranky. So, we wanted to get up late, enjoy the breakfast buffet, relax in the pool and hot tub before starting our drive.

As mentioned in the previous post, Chimney Rock National monument is around 30 mins drive from Pagosa Springs. This is a good place to visit if you are interested in archeology and native American Lifestyle.

Chimney Rock
PC: Google images labeled for reuse

It also makes sense to visit the world's deepest geothermal hot springs. There are 3 locations with access to hot springs in Pagosa Springs - The Springs Resort & Spa, Healing waters Resort &Spa and the new Overlook Mineral Springs Spa.

Hot Springs
PC: Google images labeled for reuse

We drove towards Treasure falls, which is seen from the highway itself. There is a short hike going near the falls, but we couldn't go on a hike due to time constraint. Treasure falls is beautiful and it is worth the hike.

Treasure Falls

After crossing treasure falls, the drive is very scenic with mountains and valleys. We crossed 'Wolf Creek Pass' and skiing area as well on the way. The views were breathtaking.

Our next stop was to Crestone. 

The drive from Pagosa Springs to Crestone is scenic too.

Near Crestone

This Mahalakshmi temple and Haidakhandi Universal Ashram is in the foothills of San De Cristo mountains. The place is peaceful, good for meditation and yoga. The devotees perform aarti every evening at 6 PM and they provide overnight accommodation as well on request. There is also a Mahalakshmi shop with brass idols and pooja related items. 

Mahalakshmi temple and Haidakhandi Ashram

They have built this ashram in a self-sustainable way by properly utilizing the natural Sunlight to the advantage. The Ashram kitchen also offers lunch to the devotees. Visit this site to know more about this ashram.  

I have also heard that there is a small waterfall near the temple which is accessible by a short hike. We couldn't go for that as we had to return to Colorado Springs. We could reach Springs by 6pm itself which gave us enough time to rest and get ready for our daily grind from Monday. 

Thus, our 3-day Vacation ended on a happy note. 

Bonus Tips:

1. There is one specific part that we left on this trip which is on the way - Telluride and Ouray. These mountain towns are on the way to Pagosa Springs from Mesa Verde. We wanted to cover these places in the next fall and of course, we need another 2 days to relax in the Switzerland of America(Ouray).

2. One more part that you can customize is the plan from Monument Valley Park. We have covered Four Corners and Mesa Verde after Monument valley, But if you have time for 2 more days, I suggest you cover Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, and Lake Powell from there as you will be nearer to Arizona border from there. 

Accommodations near Pagosa Springs:

So, How do you like our travelogue? Do let me know in comments.

Until next time,

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This post is written as part of a blog train #letsblogwithpri hosted by Prisha. Thanks to Revati for introducing me to this blog train. I would love to introduce Noor Anand to the blog train. Noor writes on multiple topics like food, travel, parenting etc., Read her posts.

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Prisha Lalwani
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