Grand Staircase National Monument Escalante

Monday October 1st
Having dashed across Nevada in two days we are taking time to get through Utah. Cathedral Canyon to Duck Creek is only 89 miles, Duck Creek to Bryce is only 50 miles, when we moved on it was only another 50 miles to Petrified Forest State Park in Escalante. where there is a reservoir and a petrified Forest, though we have not seen that yet. We are following route 12, which is a scenic Byway of America and joins many of the amazing land forms of this area.This whole region of Utah is called the Grand Staircase National Monument, because it is a landscape made up from a whole series of cliffs and plateau which start in the south with The Grand Canyon and rise in a series of steps to Powell Point. As you travel through you are continually confronted with vertical cliffs that soar above and deep ravines below, where water and ice have ripped away the rocks as the Colorado Plateau was slowly pushed up as two continental plates collided. The geology is amazing and I don't pretend to follow all of it - there just isn't time to find out about it. But the visual effect is staggering.

Our onward progress has been halted temporarily as Sally has been unwell with a throat infection, which required a visit to the local clinic, so we will stay at Escalante Petrified Forest State Park for three nights instead of one, before we move 30 miles up the road to Boulder and The Burr Trail, which will give us access to the Water Pocket Fold, the main feature of Capitol reef National Park, although on Sunday we did have a meal out at the local restaurant, called the Pioneer Restaurant, we shared a Beef Pot Roast, which was very nice.