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Utah Route 12 East of Escalante UT

Boondocked east of Escalante UT, April 14, 2011
Boondocked east of Escalante UT, April 14, 2011

There are some good spots to boondock in the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument along Utah Route 12 between Escalante and Boulder. This spot is on the ridge west of Spencer Flat Road and overlooks Escalante to the west and Escalante Canyons to the east.

Three hundred degree view

At the very top of the ridge above the 8% grade descending east to Spencer Flat Road, turn south into the access road to the communications tower atop the ridge. At the end of the road is a highway maintenance yard with lots of good level parking and an expansive 300 degree view.

Utah Route 12 East of Escalante UT

Nights I've camped here

They do not Intrude on Each Other

The San Francisco Mountain lies in northern Arizona, above Flagstaff, and its blue slopes and snowy summit entice the eye for a hundred miles across the desert. About its base lie the pine forests of the Navajos, where the great red-trunked trees live out their peaceful centuries in that sparkling air. The pinons and scrub begin only where the forest ends, where the country breaks into open, stony clearings and the surface of the earth cracks into deep canyons. The great pines stand at a considerable distance from each other. Each tree grows alone, murmurs alone, thinks alone. They do not intrude on each other. ...

The Song of the Lark, Willa Cather, p265, Houghton Mifflin Co paperback edition 1987

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