Home Care In Escalante, UT

From Denver to Escalante, yonder out West to find the perfect escape in Southern Utah. For adventure-seeking Denverites, a long-weekend getaway to Moab is common practice, but with the ever-increasing crowds the Utah-Colorado border attracts, it’s time to take your adventures a step further with a visit to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Known for its rugged and remote landscape, Grand Staircase is named for its series of plateaus that “step” down from Bryce Canyon National Park toward the Grand Canyon National Park. The seemingly empty outdoor playground spans 1.9 million acres where canyons give way to rushing waters and where eroding sand and wind shape its many slot canyons — this incredible landscape beckons both the adventurous and newly curious.

This area is divided into three distinct regions: the Grand Staircase, Escalante Canyons and the Kaiparowits Plateau. Each region presents its unique landscapes, from towering cliffs and deep canyons to colorful slot canyons and rolling plateaus.

Due to its remote and rugged location, the area is not home to many lodging options. In fact, mostly what you’ll find are campgrounds, dispersed camping and a few roadside motels and cabins. But just minutes from the town of Escalante rests one of the best glamping spots in Utah.

Located off the beautiful scenic byway 12 in Bryce Canyon Country, Yonder Escalante is a 20-acre desert oasis that bridges modern lodging and luxurious amenities with the outdoors and the spirit of the old American West.

Discover below what makes Yonder Escalane a must-visit for any Denverites looking for a rugged adventure without leaving the comforts of home behind.

Lodging options

At Yonder, its minimalist, low-slung desert dwellings come in several shapes and sizes. From refurbished vintage Airstreams and artisan-crafted cabins to RV sites and places to pitch a tent, there is truly something for everyone.

Stay in one of the 10 vintage Airstreams, restored to perfection with a modern design, kitchenette and plenty of room to roam around in. Or curl up in one of the cozy custom-designed cabins simplistic in design but filled with thoughtful details like a portable lantern for late-night trips to the bathroom, a fire starter kit and a hat rack.

Deluxe RV sites include water, sewer and full electrical hookups. Plus, campsites include water and electrical hookups as well.

New Deluxe Cabins

For an even more elevated experience, Yonder added Deluxe cabins that provide chic, spacious accommodations, en suite bathrooms, private gated outdoor areas with fire pits and two-car parking for the ultimate elevated nature experience. These are the resort’s first accommodations with en suite bathrooms.

Spa-like bathrooms

The best part about “glampgrounds” is direct access to running water, toilets and showers. Personally, I would prefer to just pee in the woods or dig a hole than use a campground’s bathroom facilities. But the bathrooms at Yonder Escalante are the exception to the rule.

There are two spa-like bathroom facilities that greet you with tranquil music, light and airy furnishings and every bath amenity you can think of. Rinse off in their heated greenhouse-inspired open-air rain showers fully equipped with shower essentials. Dry off with their Dyson hairdryers and white fluffy towels, because would it really be glamping with them?

Go to the movies

Originally a drive-in movie theater, Yonder still captures the nostalgia of summer nights at the movies. Just a short walk from your accommodations is the Drive-In where guests can reserve one of the restored classic cars for viewing, grab some popcorn and candy from the airstream concession stand and sit back and enjoy cult classics like Back to the Future and Breakfast Club.

On-site dining

For those guests who didn’t bring their full kitchen with them in the RV, Yonder provides on-site dining options with their grab-and-go general store and the food truck serving breakfast burritos and sandwiches, plus dinner options.

Each cabin, Airstream, campsite and RV site offers a private fire pit for cooking meals. If you don’t feel like prepping food yourself, the store sells DIY meal kits that include a protein (I personally loved the local NYstrip steaks), two sides, bread and dessert — vegetarian options available.

Other on-site amenities

Because the desert gets hot, cool off in their 40-by-30-foot lounge pool and 30-by-10-foot jetted hot tub for guests to luxuriate, play and soak. Or enjoy a shaded retreat with a drink in hand at the end of the day at the Lodge, which serves as the meeting place for all guests with comfortable seating, firepits, and complimentary daily breakfast snacks and drinks.

Things to do at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Known for its slot canyons, Grand Staircase is a landscape with many hidden slot canyons, of which local experts don’t know how many are actually inside the monument because there are too many to count. Harris Wash, known for its Navajo sandstone, is one slot canyon worth trekking through — guided by Utah Canyon Outdoors. Their tours are led by locals who know the best spots and least crowded slots, because who wants to be stuck in a slot canyon with a bunch of tourists?

Aside from hiking through slot canyons, the monument is home to only a few designated trails — Upper and Lower Calf Creek Falls. Both trailheads are located (separate from one another) along HWY 12. Signs for Lower Calf Creek are very well designated and with ample parking.

The Lower Calf Creek Falls is the longer of the two at six miles but with a minimal elevation gain of 518 ft. The trail leads to a 125-ft waterfall that plunges into a pool — ideal for cooling off in the summer.

The least crowded of the two trails is Upper Calf Creek Falls. This short 2.2-mile hike is much steeper and a bit more challenging. But the short and sweet hike leads to an 89-ft. waterfall with more varied waterfalls above.

For a more relaxed hike, try the Escalante River Trail. Cut by the Escalante River, the monument offers a flat trail that follows the bank of the river and is a bit more dog-friendly than hiking through slot canyons. While the 85-mile trail is hikeable from Escalante to Lake Powell most take the 2.5-mile route to see some arches, Anasazi ruins and a petroglyph panel.

Yonder Escalante is situated along the scenic HWY 12 — the scenic byway that connects Bryce Canyon NP and Capitol Reef NP. Both parks make great day trips or add-ons to the drive from Denver to Escalante. Whether on your way there or heading back home, be sure to take the Hell’s Backbone — a 38-mile white-knuckle dirt road that connects the towns of Escalante and Boulder. It’s the perfect add-on to a road trip from Denver to Escalante.

GRAND STAIRCASE-ESCALANTE, Utah (ABC4) — Clean-up efforts are still underway after a mixture of produced water and up to 163 barrels of crude oil were spilled during a drilling operation in September, according to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.

The Division of Water Quality was notified of an oil spill in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument through the 24-hour Spill Line on Sept. 13.

The spill traveled 17 miles from the west side of Dixie National Forest, across the national monument, and ended near the town of Escalante, according to the department.

After investigating the issue, DEQ authorities estimate as much as 6,433 barrels of produced water and 163 barrels of crude oil were spilled.

Produced water is the water that comes out of the ground with the crude oil during the drilling process, according to the Water Environment Federation. It often contains oil, suspended and dissolved solids and various chemicals.

While no surface waters are believed to be affected at this time, the currently dry Alvey Wash was impacted by the oil mixture. DEQ says it is not aware “of any impacts to human health or wildlife” associated with the spill.

The oil mixture was released during a drilling operation by Citation Oil and Gas Corp. The corporation, along with several national organizations, is working to “excavate” the material from the area. DEQ is overseeing the effort and working on “assessing ongoing enforcement action.”

DEQ officials say the cleanup effort is going as quickly as possible, however difficult terrain and weather may impact the progress. For the time being, officials are asking the public to avoid the area and report any further concerns to the Spill Line.

To contact authorities about this or other spills, use the DEQ Spill Line: (801) 536-4123

In our year 2022, high-desert “bohemian” getaways like Joshua Tree or Marfa are on the verge of being overrun. The Airbnb-Instagram industrial complex and its throngs of venture capitalists, influencers, gurus, and clout chasers have begun slowly stripping these places of their idiosyncrasies, turning them into Pinterest-ready paradises for festival-wear fetishists.

So when The Daily Beast was invited to check out Yonder Escalante, a chic new camping resort in the southern Utah desert—featuring neatly designed A-frame cabins, restored vintage Airstreams, and a drive-in theater with parked classic cars—I must confess: I was skeptical.

My cynical ass hauled itself out to the middle of nowhere late this summer fully expecting to be floored by the natural splendor (who wouldn’t be!) but with a nagging sense of mistrust of yet another sleek, Instagrammable glamping retreat.

Instead, I let go. And I found myself deeply enjoying a long weekend of wonder.

Yonder Escalante is part RV park/part campground/part upscale lodge situated on a 20-acre plot of land right up along Scenic Byway 12—emphasis on scenic because holy hell this drive is just one gasp after another.

The resort’s distance from major cities (Vegas, five hours west; SLC, five hours north) seems to weed out the trend-chasers I so grumpily decried, so much that it feels like a real haven for true believers and adventure seekers.

A relaxed, unpretentious, and carefree experience makes sense considering the glampground was built by a father-son duo who lived the real RV life and came away wanting to create a space for fellow travelers who seek more than “just a parking spot.”

And it definitely is way more than that. Accompanying the 22 cabins, 10 Airstreams, and 35 RV spots is a laundry room along with a spa-like bath house with luxury toiletries and private outdoor showers. A food truck offers breakfast burritos and oatmeals by morning; several delicious sandwiches, including a house smash burger, along with Dole Whip soft-serve and heapings of tots and fries at all other hours. A general store sells DIY meal kits, snacks, and alcoholic beverages. And a mid-century, open-air communal lodge features fire pits overlooking the vast, dusty desert landscape.

The pool/hot tub is a welcome oasis before or after a full day of exploring the surrounding areas. Indeed, there’s an immense amount of stuff to look at and hikes to consider. And Yonder Escalante is the perfect home base for the requisite day trips as it sits within driving distance of both Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks and their countless sights, as well as the myriad slot canyons, hoodoos, and river trails dotting the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. A simple daytime drive east on Route 12 turns into a thrill ride on the Hogsback, a stretch of the byway that climbs to the narrow crest of a ridge with immediate drops in the hundreds of feet on either side of the road.

On this particular trip, we hiked Bryce Canyon’s Queens / Navajo combination loop, which included the famed “Wall Street” and its steep, narrow switchbacks; the Devil’s Garden, a remote playground of sandstone formations and arches several miles down the bumpy Hole-in-the-Rock Road; and Lower Calf Creek Falls, a nearly seven mile out-and-back to a 126-foot waterfall tucked away deep within the canyons.

Nothing like multi-hour hikes through some truly extraterrestrial-looking landscapes to reset the neurons in this media-addled brain, release some dopamine, and experience pure, uncut awe.

But it was back at Yonder Escalante where I was more surprised to capture some of that childlike joy.

Since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by Airstreams. Something about that retro-futuristic curved aluminum shape—like a sci-fi silver bullet to somewhere, anywhere that isn’t here—has long led me to stop and gawk whenever I spot one. (Shoutout to the person who parks theirs on my favorite cobblestone street in Red Hook.) And so every time I approached our Airstream trailer, I admittedly felt giddy to be there. Absolute dweeb, I know.

I’ve been camping plenty of times and am certainly guilty of wincing at glamping as “inauthentic” or “bougie.” But the Yonder experience sacrifices none of the simple pleasures that make camping enjoyable in the first place. Like cooking on an open flame.

“There’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans,” Tom Waits once sang, and while there were sadly no cans of beans available, Yonder does offer a delightful series of DIY meal packages: A local whole chicken, spatchcocked and sous-vide in advance so that it stays juicy and you only need to brown it to your liking; or a generous cut of steak from a family-owned meat processor in Kanab; and sides of various fresh and fully seasoned veggies along with—of course—a s’mores kit.

Out in front of each trailer or cabin is a fire pit and plenty of space to just hang out. And so we happily did so for all three nights, almost like a ritual: Return from a long day of hiking, spark up the fire pit, sit around for hours drinking beer, taking in the crisp desert air and staring up at the darkest sky I’ve seen in years with a hazy band of the Milky Way visible.

And then we go to bed and do it all again.

Andrew Kirell

@andrewkirell[email protected]

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SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed from the state of Utah challenging President Joe Biden’s expansion of two national monuments: Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.

In 2017, under President Trump, Bears Ears National Monument on lands considered sacred to Native Americans was downsized by 85%, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was cut by nearly half.

The current administration is looking to restore them to their previous size.

The Utah Attorney General filed a lawsuit in 2022 fighting the decision by President Biden.

On Friday, Aug. 11, U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffer dismissed the case, saying Biden could issue proclamations creating monuments “as he sees fit,” and that those actions are not reviewable by the court.

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes responded to the case’s dismissal Friday, saying, “The Attorney General’s Office respectfully but strongly disagrees with the court’s order on the Monuments case today. We will appeal the dismissal in order to stand up against President Biden’s egregious abuse of the Antiquities Act.”

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox also expressed his disappointment with the federal judge’s decision, claiming the expansion is not within the president’s authority, and that the move ignores local concerns. Gov. Cox issued the following statement:

This case will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court and today’s ruling helps us get there even sooner. The clear language of the law gives the president the authority only to designate monuments that are ‘the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.’ Monument designations over a million acres are clearly outside that authority and end up ignoring local concerns and damaging the very resources we want to protect. We look forward to starting the appeals process immediately and will continue fighting this type of glaring misuse of the Antiquities Act.

Bears Ears, which was designated a National Monument under President Obama, is unique because land management decisions are made by a commission governed by both federal agency officials and representatives from five tribal nations, according to the Associated Press.

The part of Utah where Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante are located has reportedly been the subject of heated land management debates since President Bill Clinton designated Grand Staircase a national monument in 1996.

Biden has argued the land is sacred to these native peoples.

Turns out, I do. I need them.

Just three nights at southern Utah’s new glamping resort Yonder Escalante has shown me the error of my uncomfortable camping ways.

Vintage airstreams and a drive-in movie theater with classic car seating at Yonder Escalante in southern Utah.(Courtesy of Yonder Escalante)

I arrive at Yonder just as the sun is setting behind the sandstone cliffs that make this corner of Utah one of the country’s most unearthly landscapes. Under the painted evening sky, soft light pours from the windows of my vintage Airstream trailer. Across the way, the drive-in theater casts its glow on a clutch of multi-hued classic cars parked in front of the screen.

Inside my camper, I shed my bags and look around at my new digs. The place is styled with minimalist-meets-desert care by Roy Hospitality Design and Anacapa Architecture. On one end is a plush bed heaped with half a dozen pillows. On the other end, a lounge area is set with a daybed and a well-worn leather chair and ottoman. A kitchen with cool, running water lines the wall in between. Outside, tent campsites, van and RV sites, and designer A-frame cabins are spread around the property. Like the Airstreams, each little cottage comes with its own fire pit and outdoor seating, a cozy bed, and a lounge area. I’m impressed, but it’s only after seeing the indoor-outdoor showers in the spa-like bathhouse that I begin to reconsider the wisdom of so many nights spent in dirty, overcrowded campgrounds.

The interior of Yonder's refurbished vintage Airstream trailers.(Mason Moir)

Yonder Escalante is smack dab in the middle of a region that is world-renowned for its arid beauty. There are three national parks within a two hour drive of the resort—Zion, Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon, the closest of the bunch—and the northern boundary of the most underrated national monument in the U.S., Grand Staircase-Escalante, is less than five miles away.

It’s there that I find myself dangling off a cliff deep inside a narrow slot canyon the next day. The crevices that slice through Grand Staircase-Escalante are some of the most challenging in the world, says our guide Rick Green, an accomplished canyoneer and the owner of Excursions of Escalante. All day, he leads us through the sandstone maze, shimmying over boulders, bridging across yawning gaps, and dropping down natural slides. Anything we can’t scale on our own, we rappel down instead. It’s exhilarating and challenging and, as soon as it’s over, I want to do it all over again.

Back at Yonder, the pool is irresistible. I slip into the chilly water and when I’m sufficiently cool, I hop over the edge into the massive hot tub. Most of those lounging poolside have been out exploring today. One couple hiked Grand Staircase-Escalante’s no-ropes-needed Peek-a-Boo and Spooky Gulch slot canyons, another group has just arrived from a day at Zion. Everyone is so pumped up that we forget we’re in the company of strangers and chatter like old friends.

The night’s drive-in movie is Despicable Me—they play a variety of cult classics, but when there are a lot of little ones staying, the movie choices veer more kid-friendly and fun—and, once I’ve indulged in the dreamy indoor-outdoor shower, I make a beeline for the backseat of the seafoam Chevy Rambler where a new acquaintance has saved me a seat. The Airstream concessions stand pumps out nachos, hot dogs, beverages of the alcoholic and non-alcoholic variety and, best of all, free popcorn. At the movie’s end, I bid my buddies farewell and snuggle up in my air-conditioned camper for a well-earned rest.

(Courtesy of Yonder Escalante)

Spa-like bathrooms with hot showers will make you question why you ever stayed at a dirty campground.

When morning breaks, I suit up for the day’s hike and head to the outdoor lodge and food truck. I order a breakfast sandwich, grab complimentary tea and a rice crispy treat from the lodge, and take a seat next to a communal fire pit to review the trail I’ll be taking to Lower Calf Creek Falls, a 120-foot cascade that falls like a veil over the side of a massive cliff.

The waterfall doesn’t disappoint but it’s only one piece of an epic day that includes a scenic drive through the breathtaking national monument and an hour spent wandering through its crop of mushroomy rock formations at Devil’s Garden. By the time I get back to Yonder, I want nothing more than a shower, a beer, and a bite to eat.

On weekends, the morning food truck opens for dinner. On weekdays, the general store or a five-minute drive to the town of Escalante is where it’s at (though they plan to open the food truck up for dinner seven days a week soon). I consider picking up one of Yonder’s meal kits, partially cooked feasts and s'mores that can be heated over my private fire pit. As tired as I am though, I just want to keep things simple. I grab a pre-made sandwich and salad and head back to my trailer.

Later that night, the wind picks up and blows huge, howling gusts against my Airstream. But inside, curled up with a book, I’m cozy as can be. If I wasn’t convinced before, I am now. There’s definitely something to this glamping thing.

Yonder's lodge has fire pits, comfy seating, board games, and more.(Aleks Danielle Butman)

The next morning, I lock the door to my Airstream, order a breakfast burrito from the food truck, and begin the long drive back to the airport. There’s only one thing left to do before I go. I pull into Bryce Canyon, flash my national parks pass, and drive to my favorite overlook, Inspiration Point.

A dense forest of rock spires grow here in the homeland of the Paiute. They believed the unusually close-knit hoodoos were To-when-an-ung-wa, Legend People, who Coyote turned to stone for drinking up all the water and gobbling up all the food, leaving nothing for the animals that shared their land.

Last time I visited Bryce, I spent a freezing night sleeping—or, more accurately, laying awake—on the ground in an icy campground. I saw the national park through exhaustion and bleary eyes. Now, well-rested and chipper, I can almost see the Legend People fleeing Coyote’s wrath in the swell of the rock formations up the canyon. Glamping has shown me the way.

// Campsites start at $69/night, cabins start around $259/night, Airstreams start around $289/night; 2020 UT-12 (Escalante, Utah), stayonder.com.