Utah Roadtrip: Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

Though technically managed by the Bureau of Land Management and not the National Park Service, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was on my list of places to visit in Utah.

Although I’m sure all of its nearly 2 million acres are beautiful, I was there for one site in particular: Grosvenor Arch.

Three years ago, Grosvenor wasn’t a name I knew. Then I moved to Washington DC and Grosvenor is the name of a Metro stop I pass daily. Then I started working at National Geographic and began to learn about the Grosvenor family.

Gilbert H. Grosvenor was the first full time employee of the National Geographic Society in 1899. He was the son-in-law of Alexander Graham Bell, the Society’s second president (Bell was the son-in-law of the Society’s first president Gardiner Greene Hubbard). Grosvenor became editor-in-chief of the magazine and president of the Society. He is often considered the “Father of Photojournalism” and he not only grew the circulation of the magazine he helmed, but he helped shaped the National Geographic Magazine you all grew up with and know today.  Grosvenor’s great-granddaughter continues the familial legacy today as a member of the National Geographic Society’s Board of Trustees.

So how does an arch in the middle of Utah connect to a man in Washington, DC?

In 1948 a National Geographic expedition began to explore the region east of Bryce Canyon National Park hoping to find new geological wonders under the vast Utah sky. What they found was a region so colorful and vibrant they named it Kodachrome Flat after the Kodak film known for its color quality. Today this region contains Kodachrome Basin State Park. This bowl of a park has 67 spires, hiking trails, and a campground. Just before the entrance to Kodachrome Basin State Park is the unpaved Cottonwood Canyon Road that enters Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Ten miles of dust and free range cattle leads to a 152 feet high, 99 feet wide sandstone double arch.Strangely, the road to Grosvenor Arch is unpaved, but when you step out of your car, there is a beautiful sidewalk leading to the arch.Even after visiting the Grand Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, and Arches earlier in the trip, there was no denying the majesty of Grosvenor Arch.The 1948 expedition found this arch and mistakenly thought they were the first to discover it so they named it after Gilbert H. Grosvenor stating that “he had done more than any other person to arouse public interest in geography.” That’s true for me, after all it was the Grosvenor name that took me down ten miles of dirt road to discover Grosvenor Arch.According to a sign at the start of Cottonwood Canyon Road this arch was originally called Butler Arch by early settlers. So the 1948 expedition wasn’t the first to discover it. Um, whoops? They were however likely the first to publicize it and now everyone can visit this geological marvel.If you plan on visiting Grosvenor Arch, please inquire about the condition of Cottonwood Canyon Road at the Grand Staircase-Escalante Visitor Center or at the entrance to Kodachrome Basin State Park. When we visited, it was washboarded and rutted in some spots. The rangers had warned us that there were a couple washes with standing water, but that the bottom was firm. Also keep an eye on the weather. We saw a storm building and dark clouds moving in so we cut our visit to the arch short. Getting stuck in a pasture with free range cattle was not part of our vacation plans.Go. Live.

**Additional information for this piece was gathered from National Geographic Travel’s Intelligent Travel blog. Check out Dan Westergren’s 2009 article on the discontinuation of Kodachrome film.