Next stop Grand Staircase-Escalante NP. Specifically, we wanted to go to Devils’ Garden and a few of the slot canyons, Peekaboo in particular. Unfortunately, as had been the case so much on this trip, this area was getting a lot of rain, which we were told wasn’t normal at all for this time of year. Flash floods can happen in these type canyons even if it isn’t raining right on top of you. We heard warning after warning to be careful, watch the weather and stay out of the canyons if there was rain. So all that to say, we didn’t want to go into the slot canyons with cloudy skies and rain in the forecast.
It is amazing how much awesome scenery you can’t see at all until you are right on top of it. You drive along and see a whole lotta nothing, turn off the road and boom, there’s this area of strangely shaped hoodoos. (Same with Goblin Valley State Park - you couldn’t see it until you were right on top of it). It is amazing that at some point in the last couple hundred years people were out exploring in these areas and just happened to find these places. It always makes me wonder what we might have been missing because we couldn’t see it and it may not have been marked with a sign.
Metate Arch in Devils Garden, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Park, Utah
We figured by now if we were going to have trouble with the truck again it would have happened so we did venture out onto the dirt road and go to Devil’s Garden. The drive is about 11 miles on a washboard dirt road. No matter how fast or slow you drive, it still shakes and rattles everything in the truck.
Sadly, by the time we made it the wind was picking up, the sky was a boring gray and it was the middle of the day. But, this place is so cool. We were able to walk and climb around and really get into the place rather than have to see it from behind some fence. These were my favorite parks, the ones you go as far into as you like.
So we wandered around, took photos, climbed around, and snapped the required selfies to share later. Side note: there was absolutely NO cell service where we were in the park, which was awesome in my opinion.
As soon as I took the photos of Metate Arch I envisioned this stark black and white photo.
We hung out for a couple hours, and as mentioned above, because of the rain and decidedly not wanting to get swept away in a flash flood in the slot canyons, we headed back toward the main highway rather than venturing on another 15 miles or so to the slots.
We drove on till we found the visitor center for the park and, of course, we got another sticker for our ever growing collection on the truck topper.