4 Best Sights in Escalante, Southwestern Utah

One of the more easily accessible and rewarding adventures in the national monument, this picturesque canyon rife with oak trees, cacti, and sandstone pictographs is reached via the 6-mile round-trip Lower Calf Creek Falls Trail, which starts at Calf Creek Campground, 15 miles east of Escalante and 12 miles south of Boulder along scenic Highway 12. The big payoff, and it's especially pleasing on warm days, is a 126-foot spring-fed waterfall. The pool at the base is a beautiful spot for a swim or picnic.

Yes, this remarkable landscape in Cannonville, about 40 miles southwest of Escalante, is named after the old-fashioned color photo film, and once you see it you'll understand why the National Geographic Society gave it the name. The stone spires known as "sand pipes" are found nowhere else in the world. Hike any of the trails to spot some of the 67 pipes in and around the park. The short Angel's Palace Trail takes you quickly into the park's interior, up, over, and around some of the badlands. Note that the oft-photographed Shakespeare Arch collapsed in 2019; although the trail leading to what is now a pile of rubble is still open, it's not as interesting as the Angel's Palace or Panorama Trails. 

Imagine a zoo frozen in time: this 14,000-square-foot private museum contains more than 1,600 butterflies and 1,100 taxidermy animals in tableaux mimicking actual terrain and animal behavior. The animals and birds come from all parts of the world. An African room has baboons, bush pigs, Cape buffalo, and a lion. There's also a collection of about 40 living fallow deer that kids delight in feeding and ATV and bike rentals for touring scenic Highway 12 and the Paunsaugunt Plateau.

This park just 2 miles northwest of downtown protects a huge repository of petrified wood, easily spotted along two short but moderately taxing hiking trails (the shorter and steeper of the two, the Sleeping Rainbows Trail, requires some scrambling over boulders). Of equal interest is the park's Wide Hollow Reservoir, which has a swimming beach and is popular for kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding, trout fishing, and birding. Keep an eye out for Escalante Rock Shop, just before you reach the park border, which sells petrified wood and other geological wonders.