Scenic Byway and Escalante

We said our fond farewells to Monument Valley and left early to drive over to Escalante also known as Grand Staircase. It being a 6 hour drive we thought we’d leave around a day for it, lucky we did!

The drive was far more scenic that either of us expected. It is a ‘National Scenic Byway’ and also described as the ‘Trail of the Ancients’. Along the way there were many awesome views and more amazing was that with each passing hour the landscape changed dramatically.

Have a look. First off we drove past the Mexican Hat at Monument Valley, which at a certain angle does look like a mexican in a hat.
 (See below). 
Then we drove through the flat pancake desert, called the Valley of the Gods.  

As we neared the top we realised why it got its name. We got out and saw this AMAZING landscape below, you could just envision ancient pueblo peoples building homes in the cliff face and ancient animals drinking at long dried up watering holes. I wanted to share this moment with you.

From there we continued through the Capitol Reef Park, which used to be an amazing reef at some point in time.
Through the valley where the first Mormons wandered and began farming. The valley is gorgeous.
Then up into Escalante where suddenly green springs up and there are trees!

The Anasazi centre in Boulder was really interesting as it was built around the anasazi dwellings in the back. Several intact hogans and a couple of rarer pit dwellings. Of interest the pit dwellings were all interconnected, hinting (i imagined!) at a collective and very integrated society.

Each pit dwelling and hogan has a hole in the centre and a ladder going up. Originally historians thought it was to let the smoke out, but the Navajo who have similar beliefs, helped enlighten by explaining that this is a origin myth. Man was born in a black cave/womb and climbed out. Therefore the act of getting up and leaving the home each day was also reenactment of their origins.

We arrived at Canyons Bnb the cutest and quaintest cottages in Escalante. Large sunflowers nodded to us along the path to our room, pink foxgloves threatened to overtake the paths, and a wonderfully large hammock for two + Totoro gave us shade and rest. (Apologies for the sudden burst of poeticism!). Totoro gave it his seal of approval as you can see below. For dinner our food luck held as we were treated to the best pizza in Escalante!

Calf Creek – Greg and I rose early to head out to Calf Creek Falls in between the wide canyons. On the way we happened to find a coffee house nestled in the side of a mountain (deliciously random!), Kiva Coffee. Its amazing how funny little establishments like this happen to pop up in odd places!  Its about 30 min outside of the town and there is nothing else around for miles – apart from cliffs, canyons and wilderness!

The creek walk was sweltering. It was self guided (I love these! You can learn and walk!), and took you right into the floor of the canyon. All sorts of wildlife come down to the creek (see our squirrel video!), and years ago when it was much larger the Anasazi tribes lived here. Along the walk you could see evidence of their habitation from centuries ago – still present.

It’s so hot out there, come and take a dip with me!