Canyons Of The Escalante

Either fly into St. George (SGU) or Las Vegas (LAS). If flying into Las Vegas, we can arrange transfers on one of the hourly shuttles from Las Vegas to your arrival hotel in St. George. If you plan on driving here, arrangements can be made to keep your vehicle at the hotel. Abby Inn Best Western Inn Plus, St. George, UT

Depart St. George at 7:00 AM and travel approximately 3 hours to just outside of Bryce Canyon National Park. When we arrive, enjoy a scenic drive through Kodachrome Basin State Park and go on a couple of shorter hikes to hoodoos and other unique formations that inspired the folks from National Geographic in 1949 to name this place after the Kodak film they were using. Afterwards, you’ll travel east to Grosvenor Arch for a view of this unique formation. The arch was initially the symbol for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument when it was first formed. Next up, we explore close-by Round Valley Draw, our first slot canyon. This 5-mile round trip hike takes you through a rarely visited slot canyon offering beautiful sandstone formations and the opportunity to see the start of Hackberry Canyon, which is a backpacker’s wilderness. We’ll then head to our hotel in Bryce Canyon City. After dinner, there will be a private astronomy program for the group where you will learn about the stars you will be seeing for the rest of the week! Best Western Plus Ruby’s Inn, Bryce Canyon City, UT | Meals: B, L

This morning, we explore Willis Creek Slot Canyon, which is a “user friendly” slot canyon and is a great way to break you into what you’ll be experiencing over the next several days. Along the way, there are a few waterfalls where you can experience seeing a slot canyon being formed by Mother Nature. We’ll walk down Willis Creek, which usually is a few inches deep with water and a foot or two wide, for about two miles or more and return back to the trailhead. We then continue down the road a few more miles so that you can experience Bull Valley Gorge, which is a bit more sinister-looking than Willis Creek. You’ll see where an automobile from the 1950s is part of the road bridge over the gorge. We’ll descend into this deep, dark and ominous slot canyon and explore its bowels for a few miles while we negotiate the chockstones that have been moved here during many flashflood events over thousands of years. Total hiking distance for both slot canyons will be about 4 to 6 miles. After we spend the day exploring these two slot canyons, we’ll head over to the town of Escalante, which is about an hour away. Canyon Country Lodge, Escalante, UT | Meals: B, L, D