Escalante State Park

48 miles E of Bryce Canyon National Park

Large chunks of colorful petrified wood decorate this unique park, which offers hiking, fishing, boating, camping, and panoramic vistas of the surrounding countryside. There's wildlife to watch, trails to hike, and a 30-acre reservoir for boating, fishing, and somewhat chilly swimming.

The park is open year-round, but spring through fall is the best time to visit. Hikers should be prepared for hot summer temperatures and carry plenty of water.

Getting There

The park is 44 miles from Bryce Canyon. It's located about 2 miles southwest of Escalante on Utah 12 at Wide Hollow Road.

Information & Visitor Center

Contact Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, 710 N. Reservoir Rd., Escalante, UT 84726 (tel. 435/826-4466; www.stateparks.utah.gov). The visitor center, open daily, has displays of petrified wood, dinosaur bones, and fossils, plus an exhibit explaining how petrified wood is formed.

Fees & Regulations

Entry costs $5 per vehicle. As at most parks, regulations are generally based on common sense and courtesy: Don't damage anything, drive slowly on park roads, and observe quiet hours between 10pm and 7am. In addition, you're asked to resist the temptation to carry off samples of petrified wood. Pets are welcome, even on trails, but must be on leashes no more than 6 feet long.

Camping

The 22-unit RV and tent campground, within easy walking distance of the park's hiking trails and reservoir, is open year-round. Facilities include hot showers, modern restrooms, and drinking water, but no RV hookups. Camping costs $15 per night. Reservations are available at tel. 800/322-3770 or 801/322-3770; www.reserveamerica.com; a $7 nonrefundable fee will be charged.

Rock or Wood -- What Is This Stuff?

It looks like a weathered, multicolored tree limb, shining and sparkling in the light -- but it's heavy, hard, and solid as a rock. Just what is this stuff? It's petrified wood. Back in the old days -- some 135 to 155 million years ago -- southern Utah was not at all the way it is today. It was closer to the equator than it is now, which made it a wet, hot land, with lots of ferns, palm trees, and conifers that provided lunch for the neighborhood dinosaurs. Occasionally, floods would uproot trees, dumping them in flood plains and along sandbars, then burying them with mud and silt. If this happened quickly, the layers of mud and silt would cut off the oxygen supply, halting the process of decomposition -- effectively preserving the tree trunks intact. Later, volcanic ash covered the area, and groundwater rich in silicon dioxide and other chemicals and minerals made its way down to the ancient trees. With the silicon dioxide acting as a glue, the cells of the wood mineralized. Other waterborne minerals produced the colors: Iron painted the tree trunks in reds, browns, and yellows; manganese produced purples and blues. Sometime afterward, uplifts from within the earth, along with various forms of erosion, brought the now-petrified wood to the surface in places like Escalante Petrified Forest State Park and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, breaking it into the shapes we see today -- a mere hundred million years or so after the trees were first uprooted.

Sports & Activities

Fishing & Boating -- Wide Hollow Reservoir, located partially inside the park, has a boat ramp (sorry, no rentals are available) and is a popular fishing hole for rainbow trout and bluegill, plus ice-fishing in winter.

Hiking -- The 1-mile loop Petrified Forest Trail is a moderately strenuous hike among colorful rocks, through a forest of stunted juniper and piñon pine, past a painted desert, to a field of colorful petrified wood. The hike also offers panoramic vistas of the town of Escalante and surrounding stair-step plateaus. A free brochure is available at the visitor center. Allow about 45 minutes. An optional three-quarter-mile loop off the main trail -- called Trail of Sleeping Rainbows -- leads through a large amount of petrified wood, but is considerably steeper than the main trail.

Wildlife-Watching -- This is one of the best spots in the region to see wildlife. The reservoir is home to ducks, geese, and coots. Chukar partridges wander throughout the park, and you're also likely to see eagles, hawks, lizards, ground squirrels, and both cottontails and jackrabbits. Binoculars are helpful.