VIEWFINDER GRAND STAIRCASE-ESCALANTE NATIONAL MONUMENT PRESENTS PICTURE-PERFECT SCENES AT EVERY TURN

Sometimes you have to take one for the team. That’s what I was thinking as I watched my husband, Review-Journal photographer Jeff Scheid, wade through the ice-cold, knee-deep water of Zebra Slot Canyon in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

He had been suffering from a nagging cough for a few days, but he gamely trudged through the water to try for that perfect picture of light shining down into the narrow canyon.

Only there was little sunlight that day in mid-April. The trip I planned to Southern Utah’s national monument fell on the coldest weekend of the month: highs in the 40s, lows in the 20s, with a gusty wind throughout.

It was our first trip to Grand Staircase-Escalante, and although we traveled through rain and snow, the drive was breathtakingly beautiful — through the red cliffs of Zion National Park, the multicolor hoodoos of Bryce Canyon National Park and treecovered hills of the Dixie National Forest — as we made our way to the town of Escalante.

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is huge — 1.9 million acres — and consists of three regions: the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau and the Canyons of the Escalante. There are many sights throughout — arches, waterfalls, slot canyons — and many of the rock layers date to the time of the dinosaurs.

As first-timers, we weren’t sure where to start, so we enlisted the aid of Escape Goats, a family-owned outfitter in Escalante. The company offers more than a half-dozen day tours as well as two- and three-day backpacking trips. Escape Goats owner Shawn Miller recommended the 7-mile round-trip hike through the Tunnel and Zebra slot canyons.

“Zebra and Tunnel (hike) does offer more of what we have. You’ll see some Indian signs (artifacts) out there. We’re going to see moqui marbles that are unique to that one area, and you’ll see some slots,” he said.

We met Miller at Escalante Outfitters, a store and cafe that quickly became our favorite breakfast and dinner spot. He drove to the start of the trail, which is accessed by a gravel road about five miles out of town. The Hole-in-the Rock road we were traveling on was part of the route taken by Mormon pioneers in 1879, when more than 200 individuals, 83 wagons and more than 1,000 head of livestock heeded the call of church President John Taylor