I have reached the next destination in my virtual hike. In my post Virtual Hike to Pioche I had announced that the next goal would be Escalante, Utah. I had hoped to reach Pioche by the end of October, but I finished well past that goal. Along with travel and being very busy with work I have done a lot less walking. You can see here that the distance between Pioche and Escalante was 189 miles. If I had actually been hiking this route it would have been challenging with many elevation changes.

Escalante is not a very big town with less than 1,000 inhabitants. Escalante is named after Silvestre Vélez de Escalante who was a member of a Spanish expedition to Utah at the time of the Revolutionary War.

Escalante is in a very scenic area. Just outside of town is the Escalante Petrified Forest and it is also adjacent to the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument.

Here is the main street of Escalante. To me it looks very familiar as there are many towns in Kansas that look similar.

Part of the route to Escalante was along UT-12 which is very scenic. Can you imagine walking along while looking at these beautiful hills?

Here is another view where you can see a bit further off to the side. There are many scenic views along the route that my virtual hike took.

The section of the virtual hike will also be very scenic. The next destination will not be as far as I will be heading to Bullfrog, Utah. Then the plan is to take the ferry across to Halls Crossing and head on to the Four Corners. If I was actually hiking the trail it would be nice as it is mostly downhill 🙂

Now to get back to walking every night so it doesn’t take me so long.

Steven