The hoodoos of Escalante Grand Staircase will invariably grab your attention first. These brown, red, orange, yellow, and white pinnacles of limestone, sandstone, and mudstone shoot toward the sky in fanciful formation. Closer inspection of the park reveals horseshoe-shape amphitheaters, views of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, as well as distinct ecological zones demarcated by changes in elevation. Escalante Grand Staircase 's Ponderosa pines, high-elevation meadows, and fir-spruce forests border the rim of this canyon on the Paunsaugunt Plateau.

Escalante Grand Staircase is smaller and more comfortable than its Utah neighbors Arches and Zion, which makes it easy to explore by foot, horseback, or car. The area is named for Ebeneezer Bryce, a Mormon pioneer and cattle farmer. Although Ebeneezer and his wife, Mary, stayed for only five years, the area retained his name and the oft-quoted description of the canyon as "a helluva place to lose a cow."

The sky never seems so blue as when viewed through the window of a Claron sandstone pinnacle in Escalante Grand Staircase . Although it is the smallest of Utah's national parks at 35,835 acres, Bryce Canyon contains an outsized number of some of the most beautiful, unlikely rock formations on earth. This Dr. Seussian landscape of towering spires, fins, arches, and mazes is fodder for the imagination and a delight to the eyes. For more Escalante Grand Staircase hiking information resources click here.