Devil's Garden

Our whole objective in spending two nights and a day here in Escalante, Utah, was to make our way to the Devil's Garden. As I said in my post earlier today, I first learned about Devil's garden from this article in Outdoor Photographer magazine way back in a 2008 issue. For years, I've been keeping individual manila envelopes for each state in the union and stuffing them with things torn out, printed off, collected, and otherwise obtained. This was one of those articles. Each time we travel to a new state, I pull out its associated manila envelope and see what treasures I can find within. Think of it as three-dimensional Pinterest.

The Devil's Garden is located about 12 miles south of Utah SR 12, which is about 5 miles east of Escalante. Before taking off, however, we stopped off at the visitor's center just down the road from the RV park. It was well worth the visit and the park ranger provided us with free maps and other handouts to help us enjoy our visit. The map was very handy since it showed the other attractions along the way. Also, we asked about the slot canyons and were disappointed to learn that they were filled with water now. In fact, the Hole-in-the-Rock Road we were traveling had only just reopened after being flooded and washed out in several places. We met the road grader along the way who was grading and repairing the road. It made portions of the ride smoother, but it was still a bit of a bumpy ride. Any passenger car with good tires could have made it, however.

This is what you see when you arrive in the Devil's Garden parking lot. I've lightened the shadows and bumped up the contrast a little so that you can see the bands of color.

Here is the sign explaining what you will see. Be sure to pay attention to the last line. Below that it gave the usual warnings about carrying water, but included the fact that there is no cell service in this area, and that one cannot call for rescue. It was a small area, but it would still be easy to get lost among the formations if one were to wander too far alone.

We didn't go far, although it was fairly easy to make our way along. Look just above and to the right of center in the image below, and you'll see some people who will give you some idea of the scale of the formations.

It was interesting to walk around and around the formations and to see how different they looked from different sides. Pay attention to the middle formation in the image below.

Walk to the left of it, and this next image shows you what you'll see.

These are some of the most delicate natural bridges.

Here's how it looks from the opposite side.

Here's another. If you look at the middle of the bridge, you can see that a large concrete chunk has fallen out of it. It is resting on the ground below, but it's difficult to see in this image because it is in shadow.

We were on our way back to the car when we met a woman who offered to take our picture standing on top of the bridge.

We were kind of coming to the end of the spires and bridges, but looked out across the landscape to see this huge slab of slickrock.

The patterns and textures of the surfaces are so interesting to me.

Look down at your feet, and this is what you see.

Aren't you glad I figured out the panorama feature on my camera? Now you're seeing panoramas of everything, whether it makes any sense or not! Remember that you can click on the image to make it larger.

So at that point, we headed back to the car and back to the trailer. Smitty kept us awake most of the night. It was warm yesterday, and he spent most of the day sleeping, which meant that he was bored, lonely, and playful when the rest of us (including Gracie) went to bed. We were up most of the night trying to stave off disaster from the cat almost literally climbing the walls. It was good to come back to the trailer early in the afternoon and take naps. After I finish here, I'm going to do some needlework. After making up three stitcheries, I've barely worked on any of them. We've been very busy sight-seeing.

Tomorrow we will head off to Springdale, Utah, and Zion National Park. The weather is warm and sunny here. I'm hoping this post finds you well.