Leslie and David's Wanderings: 6 June 2021 Escalante Petrified Forest

We slept in a little this morning before hopping in the Behemoth and heading south on Utah 12. We had heard about the Petrified Wood in Escalante Petrified Forest State Park from a podcast and that the drive along Utah 12 was spectacular. Tired of the crowds in the National Park, this seemed like a nice break. The drive took us over the flanks of Boulder Mountain in Dixie National Forest with gorgeous views out to the Water Pocket features of Capitol Reef. Just past the small town of Boulder, we entered the northern reaches of Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument (a BLM Run NM) The view from the top of the mesa of hundreds of miles of slickrock canyons as far as the eye can see was amazing. That anything could live in this bleak landscape is a testament to the adaptability of nature. The bottom of the canyons, if there was water, were filled with trees and grasses, which provided little ribbons of green in the stark white slickrock. We eventually dropped down into the town of Escalante. The state park was just beyond the town and ran along the towns reservoir (Source of the towns water). After paying the entrance fee, we parked at the trail head for the Petrified Forest Nature Trail (1.8 miles, 295 feet of elevation gain, 1132 calories burned). The trail starts out pretty steep and climbs to the top of a mesa. The 50 million year old Petrified trees are spread here and there around the mesa. The trail takes you past the best specimens. There was no shade and the temperatures were in the upper 90s, but there was a nice breeze that made it tolerable. We found little pieces of petrified wood scattered all around along with the bigger pieces. As we were photographing some pieces, a family came along and the kids started climbing around on the petrified logs and the mother used one as a seat! No regard for the damage they might be causing. Just no respect by people for what lies before them. After our hike we headed back into Escalante to get a late lunch. On the way in, we noticed the Visitor Center for Escalante-Grand Staircase NM and stopped in to get our park stamp and pick up some information about hikes in the area for a future visit. We picked Escalante Outfitters based on the rating from Yelp and were not disappointed. We ordered a pizza (Wood Fired Oven) and a couple of beers and headed for the outdoor patio. There, while waiting for our food to come out (it took a long time!) we met fellow travelers and a local couple and had a great time talking about travel in the area. We were all having so much fun talking we kind of lost track of time. We made our way back to the Wanderer in time for Etta to get her dinner on time!