Home › Escalante, Utah
The town itself
Escalante, Utah
Seven hundred and eighty six people on a bench at 5,820 feet, halfway along Scenic Byway 12. It is not a resort town and it has no interest in becoming one, which is most of what is good about it.
Start here
A working town that happens to sit next to extraordinary country
Escalante is a small ranching and tourism town in Garfield County, strung along Main Street, with the Hole-in-the-Rock turnoff five miles east and 90 miles of river canyon below it. Most visitors treat it as a base, which it is, but it is worth an evening in its own right.
What you get is a place that still functions as a town rather than a set. There is a visitor center staffed by three federal agencies, fuel, a handful of places to eat, a few dozen rooms, and a night sky that is the real reason people stay an extra day. What you do not get is late dining, a supermarket, or much of anything open on a Sunday in winter.
Come for the canyons. The town is the part people are surprised to miss afterwards.
If you are working out logistics, start at the planning hub. If you already know your dates, where to stay is the decision that shapes everything else.
A good story, and true
Named for a man who never got here
Silvestre Vélez de Escalante was a Franciscan missionary who, with Francisco Atanasio Domínguez, led an expedition through the interior West in 1776 looking for a route to California. The town, the river and the whole monument carry his name.
He never reached this valley. The 1776 expedition did not travel into it. The name was attached nearly a century later by members of the Powell Survey, who mapped the river in 1872 and chose to honour him.
Before it was Escalante it was Potato Valley, after the wild potatoes a militia party found growing here in 1866.
The river has its own distinction. Almon Thompson of the Powell Survey first mapped and named it in 1872, and it is described as the last river of its size to be discovered in the 48 contiguous states. That qualifier matters and we have kept it, because the absolute version of the claim gets repeated a lot and is harder to stand behind. Either way the point holds: this was among the last country in the lower 48 to be put on a map, and standing at the top of Hole-in-the-Rock Road it is not hard to see why.
How it got here
A short history
The Hole-in-the-Rock expedition is the story locals will tell you, and it deserves it. A party of around 250 people with wagons and livestock spent months getting southeast across country nobody had routed, and when they reached the rim above the Colorado they widened a crack in the cliff by hand and lowered the wagons through it. The road out of town is named for that notch and ends at it, 62 miles later.
The Boulder Mail Trail is the other one worth knowing, and it is still walkable. Mail went over that country by mule from 1902 because there was no road, and Boulder is often described as one of the last places in the United States to receive its mail that way. It is one of the few named landmarks that remained inside the monument after 2026.
Practicalities
What is in town
Visitor center
The Escalante Interagency Visitor Center, 755 West Main Street, run jointly by BLM, the Park Service and the Forest Service. Tuesday to Saturday, 9am to 4pm, on 435-826-5499, free, with a weekly road report.
Places to stay
Motels, cabins and several bed and breakfasts. Small properties, not many of them, and they fill in spring and October. See where to stay.
Eating
Enough choice for a few nights, with shorter hours out of season than you expect. The best known kitchen on this stretch of byway is actually 27 miles north in Boulder. See restaurants.
Petrified Forest State Park
Wide Hollow Reservoir, nature trails through petrified wood, swimming and boat rental, plus a campground. Day use 6am to 10pm year round. See the state park.
Fuel up in town before any trip down the dirt road, and fill your water here too. There is nothing out there, and no phone signal once you leave the pavement.
Distances
What is within reach
| Destination | Distance | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Hole-in-the-Rock turnoff | 5 miles east | Where most of the hiking starts. Pavement ends at the turn. See the road guide. |
| Lower Calf Creek Falls | 15 miles east | The marquee hike reachable on pavement, with a BLM campground at the trailhead. |
| Boulder | 27 miles north | Over the Hogback, a ridge with no guardrails and drops on both sides. Slow and spectacular. |
| Bryce Canyon Junction | 59 miles west | Escalante sits at milepost 59 of Scenic Byway 12. |
| Torrey and Capitol Reef | 64 miles north | The far end of Byway 12, over Boulder Mountain on the Aquarius Plateau. |
| Dry Fork trailhead | About 33 miles, mostly dirt | Five miles of pavement, 26 miles of graded dirt and a 1.7 mile spur. Allow an hour. |
Byway 12 is a designated All-American Road and runs about 123 miles in total. The 30 mile section climbing Boulder Mountain and the Hogback between Escalante and Boulder are the two stretches people remember. More on the byway and the drive in on getting here.
Questions we actually get
Frequently asked
How big is Escalante, Utah?
786 people at the 2020 census, at an elevation of 5,820 feet in Garfield County. It is a working small town rather than a tourism development, with a visitor center, fuel, a few places to eat and a few dozen rooms.
Who is Escalante named after?
Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, a Franciscan missionary who led an expedition through the interior West in 1776 with Francisco Atanasio Domínguez. He never reached this valley. The name was applied in 1872 by members of the Powell Survey, who mapped the river. Before that the valley was called Potato Valley.
Is Escalante worth staying in, or should I pass through?
Stay. Almost everything worth seeing here is down a dirt road that takes an hour each way, so a pass through gets you Lower Calf Creek Falls and nothing else. Two nights is the minimum that makes the drive worthwhile and three is the honest answer.
What is there to do in Escalante besides hiking?
Escalante Petrified Forest State Park on the edge of town has a reservoir with swimming and boat rental and trails through petrified wood. The drive up Byway 12 over the Hogback to Boulder is worth an afternoon on its own. And the night sky here is genuinely exceptional.
Is there a grocery store and fuel in Escalante?
There is fuel and enough shopping to provision a trip, but not a full supermarket, and hours are shorter out of season. Fill your tank and your water in town before heading down Hole-in-the-Rock Road, because there is nothing at all out there.
What was the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition?
An 1879 party of around 250 settlers who travelled southeast from Escalante to cross the Colorado River, widening a natural crack in the cliff by hand to lower their wagons through. The 62 mile road out of town is named for that notch and ends at it.
Make a trip of it
The town is the easy part. The canyons take a little planning.
Or go straight to the slot canyons, which is what most people come for.
Most of what you came for is an hour down a dirt road.
Read the road guide