Angels' Landing and the Devil's Garden

We are now in Escalante, Utah on the edge of the Grand Staircase National Monument, another huge wilderness of high deserts, crystal clear skies and few people.  Following our last entry we spent a few days in Zion National Park which, despite the crowds and sleet, lived up to its reputation for being one of the best National Parks.  Long walks along precipitous cliffs gave us excellent views over the valley, and three of us climbed the renowned ridgeline to Angels' Landing. Francesca, ever willing made the trip, but we decided the 3ft wide trail with sheer drops to the valley floor on each side was just too much for little Liberty!

A short drive up the road took us to Bryce Canyon where we walked among the weird and wonderful hoodoos.

The forecast of 2 beautiful days, before more snow, saw us quickly replenishing supplies and heading deeper into the arid canyonlands on the rough Hole-in-the-Rock road. We stopped after 15 miles at the Devil's Garden, to rest our rattling bones and clamber around the strange toadstool rocks.

Fifteen more bone-jarring miles took us to our camping spot near our destination, the Dry Forks Slots. Utah is a fabulous place for wild camping on the enormous tracts of public lands.

The weather was so perfect that we spent the early evening exploring the 'Peekaboo' slot canyon - a narrow, twisting, sandstone tunnel with plenty of scrambling over pour-offs, including a 12ft climb just to get in. Both girls were understandably thrilled at this natural playground and we nearly had tears when we reached the far end!

There were two other canyons to explore in the immediate area and the next morning we packed lunch and set off down the dry wash to look for 'Spooky' - which was incredibly narrow and rather dark...

'The Narrows', though beautiful, was somewhat less exciting and we succumbed to the girls pleas for a return to 'Peekaboo' before finding another remote camping spot.

Returning to town, we spent yesterday at the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, where you can sit on stone logs that grew in the time of the dinosaurs. Later today we plan to head towards Boulder, another one-horse town,  for more desert adventures.