Southern Utah Canyoneering

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah, is widely known for its rugged and austere terrain, as well as its many rocky slot canyons and caves. In fact, it is one of the foremost locations for canyoneering, a challenging sport which has taken off across the United States over the past years.

Canyoneering is fast becoming the number one sport in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. Like other slot canyon areas across the United States, it has a landscape that provides continuous challenges for those interested in exploring its vast expanse.

Escalante is riddled with intrepid plateaus, deep caves and multi-colored cliffs that seem to go on and on forever, defying the imagination. In fact, its unusual twists and turns made it very difficult for map makers to put on paper, and was the last location in the United States to be added to Utah's current maps.

The area has long since been a place of extreme scientific research. Not only does it have a firm place in the history of the settlement of the Wild West, but its history and geology are still under investigation, so it is not uncommon for visitors to run across teams of paleontologists, geologists, archaeologists, biologists and historians.

Most people are baffled when asked what canyoneering means to them. In fact, most do not realize that in visiting the Escalante, they have probably at least once or twice indulged in the sport unwittingly. Simply, canyoneering involves swimming, climbing, rappelling, climbing boulders, bushwhacking, and clambering in and out and over narrow gorges, slots, cliffs and other rock formations. This may have even included backcountry camping and steep hikes, as well as enduring the elements.