| Day 37, Escalante / Highway 12 |
May 17, 2005: That morning was perfectly sunny and calm. The last thing I remember was waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of the wind blowing and what I thought at first was rain pelting the windows. It was actually sand and pebbles. By morning my car had a coating of sand on it but otherwise there was no sign at all of the strange weather from the previous night. (The radio reported that the high winds had actually toppled trucks on the highway in one area.)
Here are some closer views of the white slickrock canyon. This is actually part of a larger area recently designated as the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument. (The linked page contains some additional cool panoramic shots).
Highway 12 runs through this canyon, but many more points of interest are only accessible via unpaved roads that require 4WDs and/or lengthy hours of hiking. This makes the area popular with backpackers who wish to explore a more wild and rugged kind of wilderness less populated by tourists.
Although it's called slickrock, it's probably only slick when wet. It's mostly sandstone and very easy to walk (or ride a mountain bike) on. Characteristically, layers are exposed by erosion, giving the surface the appearance of a topographical map.
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