With map in hand, a couple cans of soda in the cooler and a rental car with a half-full gas tank (as opposed to one half-empty), they go exploring. Usually, they have a general idea of where they'd like to go and figure the excursion, only two thumbnails long on the map, won't take long.
The next day - tired, thirsty and wishing they'd filled the tank - they know differently. This is not a land to be explored casually.In their eagerness to see the new Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, some visitors are discovering, unwittingly, why it is a natural treasure. It is intimidating, unforgiving, uninhabited. Most of the roads are dirt when they are dry, a slippery glue when they're wet. What they see is an entire world of natural carvings, indescribable colors and countless wonders.
"People can't believe there are so many wonderful things to see," said Jean Seiler, marketing director for Ruby's Inn on the boundaries of the new monument. "They're eager to see the new monument. Some, however, have a hard time believing this is such a remote, rugged land."
Ranchers, who once drove the roads looking for lost stock, now routinely run into stranded or lost motorists. Many of them now carry survival gear on their routine trips.
Rescues range from people who have run out of gas to one foreign visitor, stuck at the bottom of a steep grade, who began burning parts off the rental car. The story is the car was nearly down to the frame by the time he was rescued. Some have been so far lost it took horses to reach them.
"People stop and ask directions or ask us to point out things to see," said MiraLoy Ott, owner of Scenic Safaris Trail Head Station in Kodachrome Basin. "We'll first ask what they want to see, then point out some of the main points of interest. Sometimes they'll ask about an area and we'll tell them the road is too rough for a car. They'll say, `That's OK, it's a rental,' and off they'll go. This is especially true of some of the foreign visitors. They have never encountered anything like this and simply don't have any fear of this land - and they should."
"About once a week we'll get a call that someone needs to be rescued," said Cydne Quitter, park ranger at Kodachrome. "The latest thing is the cellular phone. They'll call for help but won't know where they are. They passed us and know we're there, but they don't know where they are."
The Bureau of Land Management recently released a map of the monument. The major attractions and main roads are shown on the map. The spiderweb of lesser-used roads is not.
"There are so many roads that go nowhere," Quitter said. "Sometimes it's difficult to tell which one you're on. It's easy to get lost."
To help ease the problem, local residents are setting up their own travel service. Visitors who are unfamiliar with the area, Seiler said, are encouraged to stop, ask and take heed.
"We encourage visitors to stop by some of the local businesses or simply stop and ask some of the local residents directions," he said. "Everyone has a few places they like to go. Everyone is more than willing to take the time to help people."
One of the popular tours Ott recommends, for example, is the 46-mile Cottonwood Canyon dirt road from Cannonville to U.S. highway 89, which links Lake Powell and Kanab. Notable points of interest include Kodachrome Basin State Park, Grosvenor Arch and the Cockscomb, one of the park's most startling geologic features. Ten miles west of the junction with 89 is the Paria Road, which leads to an old movie set and to the abandoned town of Pahreah.
Not on the map is the "Candyland" valley, complete with ice cream sundae with chocolate topping and a Santa Claus. Also not on the list, but a point of interest Ott tells about, are the "Sand Pipes."
"They are the remnants of water geysers. They look like tall, round pipes but their calcite deposits form the early geysers. I'm told this is the only place in the world they're found," she said.
There are also two slot canyons in the area that are not on the map - Round Valley and Bull Valley. The easiest one to reach is Bull Valley. Access is about a mile off the main road. From a perfectly flat entrance it drops down into a canyon several hundred feet deep in places and narrow enough to touch both walls at the same time.
The important thing to remember about this young monument is that it is, as it was hundreds of years ago, remote and primitive. And that in taking direction, people should listen and take heed. There are many things to see and many roads that go nowhere.