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East Zion
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Grand Staircase
Hiking Forum
The Ultimate Southwest Vacation! Experience the Spectacular Route 89 Tour
Stay in Mt. Carmel Jct., the heart of the parks, and visit the treasures of the Southwest.
Zion Park 12 miles
Grand Staircase 6 miles
Sand Dunes 12 miles
Dixie Forest 22 miles
Cedar Breaks 45 miles
Red Canyon 47 miles
Coyote Butte 57 miles
Bryce Canyon 60 miles
Toroweap 90 miles
North Rim 95 miles
Plan your Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument vacation with our Utah and Arizona maps.
In these pages you will find insiders information on the best Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument hikes. This detailed guide includes road maps, park maps, pictures, trail beta, backpacking, history, fees, geology, flora, fauna, campgrounds, things for kids to do and even information on the Grand Staircase hidden treasures. Making summer memories in Utah's national monuments.
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Directions: East Zion to Staircase
From Salt Lake City, travel south on I15 to UT 20. Exit on UT 20. Turn south on UT 89 and follow UT 89 to Glendale.
From Las Vegas: Travel I15 to exit 16. Follow UT 9 to the south entrance of Zion and through to the east entrance. Take UT 9 for 12 miles to Mt. Carmel Jct, where UT 89 and UT 9 meet. Drive north on UT 89 to Glendale.
From Glendale, turn right on 300 N. (Bench Road) Follow the graded dirt road, Skutumpah, into the Grand Staircase. Remember the Grand Staircase is a wild and remote place. The dirt roads may be impassible when wet, there is usually no water, services or cell phone access. Skutumpah is a backway and should only be traveled in dry conditions. Call for road and weather information before travel: 435.644.4680
Willis Creek is a beautiful slot canyon hike in the Grand Staircase Escalante that the entire family can enjoy.
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Grand Staircase Escalante
National Monument
The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument is a huge chunk of public land engulfing much of the Southwestern Utah desert. The national monument is a 1.9 million acre (1,870,800 federal/15,000 privately owned) oasis of mostly primitive land strewn with streams, monoliths, slot canyons and scientific treasures galore. This parcel of land dominates the rural southern section of the state of Utah, protecting as much as two-hundred-million years of history within its boundaries. This vast oasis provides a record of geological, biological, paleontological and archeological data that will be used to fill many text books in our future. The remote and pristine Grand Staircase has preserved a wealth of original populations of flora, fauna, new species of dinosaurs and Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) artifacts.
Eighty-Percent of Utah State Land
is administered for Public Use
The enchantment of nature is abundant in Utah, where nearly eighty-percent of the state is land administered for public use by federal and state agencies. Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks and the Grand Staircase Escalante share a common sanctuary in the vast desert of Southern Utah. Each National treasure has a grand display of rock sculptures to share. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon on the far north section of Arizona also dips its boundaries into the geologic framework of the Grand Staircase.
Stepping onto the Grand Staircase
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." The steps rise 5500' from the floor of the Grand Canyon to the edge of the jagged Paunsaugunt Plateau at Bryce Canyon. The distinct steps are the Vermilion Cliffs, the White Cliffs, the Gray Cliffs and the Pink Cliffs.
Grand Staircase-Escalante Roads
Pristine and remote describes the roadways within the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Highway 89 defines the southern border and highway 12 accesses the northern side. In addition to highways 12 and 89, there 959 miles of open roads in the Grand Staircase. Glendale, Utah, located on highway 89, northeast of Zion National Park, connects East Zion to Bryce Canyon via the Glendale Bench Road and the scenic backway, Skutumpah. To the north, Highway 12 connects Tropic and Boulder, Utah. At the southern end of the monument, roads connect Kanab, Utah and Page, Arizona. The most popular roads in the Grand Staircase are probably Skutumpah Road accessed either by the Glendale Bench Road, near East Zion, or the Johnson Canyon Road near Kanab, both leading to Kodachrome Basin near Bryce Canyon. All interior roads except for portions of the Burr Trail and Johnson Canyon Road are unpaved and may be impassible if wet.
Boundaries of the Grand Staircase Escalante
The boundaries of Utah's Kane County and Garfield County enclose the monument lands. Kane County claims 68% of the monument and Garfield County holds 32%.
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