Hiking: Grand Staircase-Escalante and the Glen Canyon Region

by Ron Adkison

The Glen Canyon region of southern Utah is a desert paradise of mesas, buttes, slickrock canyons, and boundless solitude. Much of the region is roadless, and the best way to explore this wilderness is to hike it. In Hiking Grand Staircase-Escalante and the Glen Canyon Region, you will find 59 detailed hike descriptions covering hundreds of miles of trails and canyoneering routes in this vast region. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Grand Gulch, Dark Canyon, Natural Bridges National Monument, and Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness are all included. This book provides detailed maps and tips on desert safety, coping with heat and dehydration, backcountry travel, driving remote desert roads, trailhead access and services. Whether you’re a casual day hiker or a seasoned trekker, use Hiking Grand Staircase-Escalante and the Glen Canyon Region to lead you on a journey through the incredible beauty of this landscape.

Genres: Travel

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

About the author

Ron was a writer and naturalist. He is the author of 16 hiking guidebooks covering much of the western U.S. In his writing career, Ron logged in over 10,000 miles of trails to produce his books. He also wrote articles for such magazines as Backpacker and Outside Magazine. His knowledge and enthusiasm for the outdoors has carried on to both of his children.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the Falcon Guides, and they are usually my go-to when planning to hike in a new area. The Grand Staircase-Escalante book was great, with one exception: unless I missed it (and I don't think I did) there's no explanation for what the hell a friction pitch is. This pops up in trail descriptions a fair number of times throughout the guidebook, but with no explanation as to what it means or how it relates the difficulty of the trail. From the context of the work and the trail descriptions, it sounded very similar to scrambling, but upon double-checking with google it became apparent that the skill level and equipment needed was beyond the relatively simple demands of rock scrambling. It's a good thing I looked it up, and I would suggest adding a definition for it - and for the various climbing classes, for good measure - to the appendix with the glossary of terms in future editions of this book.

[Andrew Slade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. Of the many trail guides I have owned and used, this one just keeps popping up with more trails to explore. The region is so vast that major trailheads are a full day's drive away from each other, so after exploring the Blanding area, for example, then I found the Escalante area, and it's the same darn book. I only do dayhikes now, so the multi-day backpack hikes aren't directly useful for me, but even so it feels like i will never exhaust all the hiking potentials in this book.

[Sharron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm planning a backpacking trip in a few weeks. Can't wait but not sure what book to take.

This book, as with all the hiking reference books in this series, is a good step in discovering interesting aspects about a region as well as popular hiking trails. However, having been to the Grand Staircase before, I see some shortcomings. I always use other references before going such as talking to other hikers who've visited the area, internet searches and other hiking books. I also found this reference book to be too broad. Perhaps it should have concentrated on one area because the area covered is very large. But I'll probably buy it, this copy I borrowed from the library.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

gettin' there

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent guide to a bit of solitude and a lot of beauty.