Escalante & Grand Staircase: Utah's Wild Backcountry
Slot canyons, a 126-foot desert waterfall, and Scenic Byway 12 — about 3 hours from St. George. Best as an overnight, ideally paired with Bryce.
Escalante & Grand Staircase: Utah's Wild Backcountry
About 3 hours northeast of St. George along stunning Scenic Byway 12, the town of Escalante is the gateway to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument — a vast, remote landscape of slot canyons, waterfalls, and slickrock.
Highlights
- Lower Calf Creek Falls: a ~6-mile round-trip hike to a 126-foot desert waterfall (the area's signature hike)
- Peek-a-boo & Spooky slots: twin narrow slot canyons in Dry Fork (rough access road)
- Scenic Byway 12 itself: one of America's most beautiful drives, over the Hogback ridge
- Devils Garden: easy, whimsical hoodoos and arches right off the highway
Know before you go
- It's far and remote — services are sparse; fuel up and carry water and a map (cell service is spotty)
- Many backroads need high clearance and turn to impassable clay when wet
- Summer heat and flash floods are real concerns in the canyons
Tips: at 3+ hours each way, this is a big day — it's better as an overnight, ideally paired with Bryce Canyon (about an hour away). For adventurous travelers, it's some of the wildest country in Utah.