Bryce Canyon & Grand Staircase-Escalante

South-central Utah links Bryce Canyon's hoodoos with Scenic Byway 12, the slot canyons of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and Kanab, a former film-location town close to the Arizona border.

Bryce Canyon National Park is not a canyon but a series of natural amphitheatres eroded into the edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau, filled with orange and white rock spires called hoodoos. The rim sits between about 8,000 and 9,000 feet, so it is cooler than the rest of southern Utah and often snowy in winter. Sunrise and Sunset Points and Inspiration Point give the classic views, and the Navajo Loop and Queens Garden trails drop down among the hoodoos. Scenic Byway 12, designated an All-American Road, runs from near Bryce through Tropic, Escalante and Boulder to Torrey beside Capitol Reef. One stretch, the Hogsback, follows a narrow ridge with steep drops on both sides. Along the way, Kodachrome Basin State Park has tall sandstone chimneys, and Lower Calf Creek Falls is reached by a popular sandy hike. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument covers a vast, largely roadless landscape of plateaus and canyons. Around Escalante, slot canyons such as Peek-a-boo and Spooky Gulch are reached from the unpaved Hole-in-the-Rock Road and require care and good weather. In the south of the region, Kanab is a small town that served as a location for many Hollywood westerns. It is a base for Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Angel Canyon, and trips across the border to the Vermilion Cliffs.