How to Enjoy an Adventure Vacation while Staying at Escalante Escapes, a Tiny Home in Utah

Christmas of 2020 brought us an adventure-filled vacation in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. This was a story-worthy trip in an authentic western town with incredible hikes and a unique stay in a tiny home in Utah.

Having seen tiny home videos on Netflix and on YouTube, I had always wanted to experience one for myself. So when Nirmal found the tiny home on our Utah trip, I was so excited that I couldn’t wait to get there.

In this article, we share all about the town of Escalante and our stay in the beautiful Escalante Escapes, so you can plan you adventures to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument with Escalante as your home base.

Disclaimer: Escalante Escapes discounted our stay but the idea to write and the opinions expressed are entirely my own.

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Check our tips for hiking slot canyons and top hikes around Escalante

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Getting to Escalante, Utah

Escalante is a tiny Western town with a rich history of discovery, drama and stories from the times of Native American tribes, the Mormon settlers, and today’s outdoor adventure-seekers. Each of them arrived to the grand wilderness in different ways and settled in to make their own special homes.

We drove to Escalante, a 13 hour drive from San Jose, California. On the way, we stopped for an overnight camp in the Mojave desert. It was an unusual self-quarantine drive due to the extreme spread of the coronavirus at that time. We arrived on a cold winter evening in December and quickly settled in to our special tiny home for the holidays.

Our trip was extremely comfortable in comparison to the treacherous journey of 250 men, women and children who heeded the call of the Mormon church in 1887. Back in the day, the brave families marched through the most remote and breathtakingly rugged terrain in the harshest of climates. What was expected to be a 6-week journey, became a 6-month ordeal demanding unimaginable endurance, determination, grit and faith. This was named the epic “Hole-in-the-wall” expedition which is described in great detail at the Escalante Heritage Center.

Prior to AD 1, the area is believed to have been home to groups of Desert Archaic and Basketmaker cultures. The Kayenta and Fremont agricultural peoples occupied the area around 1100 AD for a few hundred years, maybe up to late 13th century. The Hopi peoples then visited and hunted in the area for the next 200 to 300 years. It is believed that the Southern Paiutes began call the area home in the 1500s.

In 1996, 880,461 acres of some of the most remote land in the country, was designated as a National Monument, named ‘Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument’. This region was so inaccessible for so long that it was the last area to be mapped in the contiguous United States. In 2017, the Trump administration reduced the size to half its original land.

Arriving at Escalante Escapes, Tiny Home Living in Utah

After our long drive from California, we were eager to settle in and freshen up. The town welcomed us with a beautiful sign and we instantly fell in love with the charming mountain town.

We had seen some snow on the drive but luckily there was no snow in Escalante at that time.

It was easy to find our way to our tiny home, which was basically across the highway from the Escalante Interagency Visitor Center.

Living in a Unique Tiny Home in Utah

We were so pleased to arrive at our tiny home in Utah for the holidays! We unpacked all our things, including the winter hiking gear and food for 12 days. We were all set for a fully self-sufficient, Covid-19 quarantine-style vacation. During our first night, a storm came through and the winds howled throughout the night. Thankfully, our brand new tiny home kept us cosy and comfortable. We hoped all night that the weather would clear up for our epic hikes and it did!

Escalante Escapes is a small community of 8 luxury tiny homes in Utah, with unobstructed views of the rugged mountains. The location and setting makes for beautiful sunsets and sunrises. I can imagine that in better weather, people come out to enjoy the front porches, the outdoor fire pits and barbecue. I can see myself talking with all the neighbors and exchanging stories of our trip. However, given the pandemic and the cold December days, we saw a few cars but no people around.

Fox Tail, our Tiny Home

I was dying with curiosity about how Escalante Escape’s brand new tiny homes would be for living in 2020 coronavirus quarantine-style. We jumped right in to explore every part of our tiny homes of Utah. I was expecting it to be somewhat like the Sossus Dune lodge of Namib Naukluft National Park. It had some similar concepts but otherwise they were quite different.

Each tiny home in Escalante Escape has a name. Ours was named Fox Tail and it was one of the three tiny homes on the upper level. We loved the location and the 2-level tiny home layout. The upper level had a loft with two double beds, perfect for kids to have some private space and a place to play.

The Fox Tail tiny home was the perfect size for the two of us. But according to the description, it sleeps 6 people. I’m assuming it would work for a family of 2 adults and up to 4 kids. It may work for sleeping and living space, but I wonder how a 6-person family would share one bathroom.

Living room

The living space in this luxury tiny home was beautifully appointed with furnishing and tasteful decorations. The best part was the sunset view from the patio. The second best part was the TV with Netflix. On long and cold winter nights, it was wonderful to bundle up with food and hot drinks to watch movies late into the night. We watched “The Professor and the Madman” on Netflix and we highly recommend the epic movie.

Bedroom & Loft

The Fox Tail tiny home of Escalante Escape has one bedroom which fits a queen bed with two small side tables, and an under-the-bed shelf. It also had a long hook/rod to hang a few clothes. The bed fits two adults but its more comfortable for one person, especially if you’re used to a Cal King bed.

I decided to take the loft right above the bedroom, for sleeping. The loft had two double beds and it comfortably sleeps two people. It was perfect to spread out and not worry about light-sleepers or waking up each other. The storm was already doing a good job of that on our first night.

Kitchen in a Tiny Home in Utah

The kitchen in Escalante Escape was actually quite spacious for a tiny home. It had a full stove top, oven, refrigerator, pots & pans, plenty of dishes and cutlery for 6 people etc. We got it well stocked for full meals and take away lunches. After all, we had the long winter evenings and mornings to chill in the tiny home.

Front Yard of Escalante Escapes

The front yard of the tiny home is one of the most fun parts. It opens up to the grand view of the mountains as far as the eyes can see. One can enjoy a barbecue with the family or bring food from the kitchen to eat on the patio. But that’s not all. It also has a fire pit which is perfect or sitting around with marshmallows, ghost stories and music. In December it was too cold to enjoy the front yard so we didn’t see anyone outside. But, I can imagine that families and especially kids come out in the summer time to play around the fire place or in the community. For families with little kids, it would be perfect to carry kiddy bikes and skate boards. It must be so much fun!

Lodging Choices in Escalante

Despite being a tiny little town in the middle of seemingly nowhere, Escalante hosts exotic accommodations such as yurts, airstreams, safari tents, cabins, tiny homes and luxurious family vacation homes. It also offers the more conventional RV sites, hotels, resorts, inns and motels. There’s something for everyone and for every price range.

Escalante Canyon Country lodge at the end of town, looks pretty and quite attractive. However, for a trip in the pandemic, I would go with an accommodation that offers independent living with a full kitchen, contactless check-in, and no shared spaces.

Escalante, a launchpad to explore Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

The following morning we explored the town of Escalante. The town only has about 800 residents but it’s quite spread out with ample space for the nearly 900K annual visitors.

We knew the town was going to be empty and mostly closed for the holidays, so we would have all to ourselves.

Escalante Orientation and Interagency Visitor Center

Back in the 1800s the Mormon town of Escalante was built on the vision of equality for all. The leaders patterned the settlement to match the Mormon church founder Joseph Smith’s vision of Zion. Escalante’s leader Josiah Baker, followed the community model of a north-south grid where each street is 6-rod wide (33 yards). To be equitable, each settler drew a 1 1/4 acre lot from a hat.

To this day, the main buildings is Escalante are on the main street (highway 12), that runs through town. The smaller streets still form the checkerboard patterns as seen the Apple Maps below. The most important stop for every visitor is the modern and grand Escalante Interagency Visitor Center perched up on a mound. It has large buildings with informative signs, brochures, ample parking and very helpful staff. Make this your first stop for all the current information for your adventures in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The center is located on the highway, as indicated by the red pin in the top left corner, at the entrance of Escalante town.

At the other end of the town is the clinic, which is another important place to know in this rugged region before you head out on an adventure.

Today, the town seems to be flourishing as an adventure destination for people that love the great outdoors.

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Check out the Top 15 hikes around Escalante

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The following images are taken driving down Highway 12. As you can tell, the town is keeping up with the times as a launchpad for adventures in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Escalante Tour Guides

After the Escalante Interagency center, Escalante’s local guides and outfitters are probably the second most popular stop for adventure enthusiasts visiting Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Escalante may be a small town but it is well equipped with resources because of increasing number of visitors ever since the area received a National Monument designation in 1996.

To plan our trip, we spoke with Jeff, the extremely helpful and knowledgeable owner of the Desert Dawn. He was out of town during our visit but he spent hours with us to ensure we were well prepared for our trip.

Escalante Outfitters is a popular stop for tourists. During our research we saw that they lead many guided hikes and adventure trips but like most other businesses, their tours was closed for winter. They also offer accommodations, a store with outdoor gear, and a restaurant.

We also checked with Excursions of Escalante for information but they were closed for winter until April 1st.

Grocery Stores in Escalante

We visited the grocery store to stock up the refrigerator of our tiny home in Utah. To our surprise, the shelves were well stocked, even with Clorox disinfectant wipes, which have been a sight for sore eyes in California. I told the store keeper how we had not seen a single container in Bay Area grocery stores, Target, Walmart, Costco or in any stores during much of 2020. She said they’ve been pretty well stocked all year. Except for a short time when they had to limit the amount per customer so everyone could have enough. I wonder why the disparity in supply. Any guesses?

During our visit much of the town was empty as residents were out of town and there were very few tourists. The grocery store had a couple of locals. Everyone kept their masks on, the entire time. They also had hand sanitizers for customer to use.

There is a cute Escalante Mercantile and Natural Grocery store which we didn’t visit but it looks like a traditional western mercantile from the 1800s and early 1900s.

Thrift Store and Home Goods

We were looking for cooking pots because our tiny home in Utah didn’t have steel pots and we weren’t keen on using the teflon coated (and somewhat scratched) pots. A customer in the grocery store suggested we check the thrift store next door. To our surprise, the store was pretty well stocked and we found two good quality steel pots, perfect for our Utah trip – for under $8 total!

The thrift store owner was a life-long Escalante resident. She said people just drop stuff outside the store and she displays them. Visitors buy things during the trip, and donate them at the end so someone else may use them. What a great way to travel light and be eco-friendly.

If you don’t find something in the grocery store or the thrift store, Escalante town has a ‘home center’ which carries all sorts of home supplies.

Kazan Memorial Clinic, a Medical Center

Escalante’s medical center, the Kazan Memorial Clinic, seems like a modern building. I’m sure its used by locals and adventure-seeking visitors in case someone has a mishap in this rugged and thrilling destination. We would have used it, but it was closed for Christmas holidays.

Bank and Post Office of Escalante Town

For a little town, Escalante, Utah has a pretty nice post office. I’m sure one could ship stuff to or from here for a trip if we didn’t have space to carry them.

The town also has a proper bank – a branch of State Bank of Southern Utah. I’m not sure its very useful for visitors in the days of credit cards and mobile payment. But, surely it’s a lifeline for the community.

Restaurants in Escalante

Highway 12 has several restaurants however we had planned to be in self-quarantine so we did not visit any of the restaurants. Many were probably also closed for the holidays. Surely they would be nice but we didn’t research the best vegan or vegetarian places. So, if you have any recommendations, please do share.

We saw a variety of restaurants such as

• ‘Georgie’s Outdoor Mexican Cafe’ would be my first stop for food.
• ‘Nemo’s Drive Thru’ looks more like a shack.
• ‘Escalante Mercantile’ deli is great for a quick bite.
• ‘Subway’ because why not!
• ‘Circle D Eatery’ is an old-school motel with burgers and such.
• ‘Mimi’s Bakery & Deli’ is a French-inspired bakery that makes everything from scratch and certainly worth a visit.

Hole-in-the-Rock Escalante Heritage Center

The heritage center, just outside the town of Escalante showcases exhibits and stories of the pioneers that braved their way to populate the Escalante area in the 1800s. There are some absolutely incredible stories of the Hole-in-the-Rock trail. Don’t just drive by, walk over and check it out.

As an example, Escalante Heritage Center tells mind-boggling stories of the Hole in the Rock crevice, which is a narrow vertical canyon. Some 250 people, 83 wagons, and 1000+ livestock needed to descend into the canyon to the river on their journey to settle the area. The pioneers built foot holdings and path for the caravan to descend into the canyon. To help a wagon climb down the sheer cliff, they put breaks on the back wheels and a group of men pulled the wagon from the top. Slowly the wagon descended into the canyon, but many a times, gravity would take control and the wagon slid many feet, almost smashing into thousands of pieces.

As the ‘Story of the last Wagon’ goes – On January 26, 1880, Joseph Stanford Smith, worked very hard guiding wagons down Hole-in-the-Rock trail. But as luck would have it, at the end of the day, when all 40 wagons in the group were safely down, his own wagon was nowhere in sight. So, he returned all the way up, only to find that his family had been left behind – his wife, Bella and 3 little children (including a 3-year old and an infant). Since the caravan was gone, brave Bella decide that she and the horse Nig would hold the wagon on the top while Joseph would lower it. She put the kids down on the top of the canyon and told them to wait.

As gravity would have it Bella and the horse, slid down a hundred feet and got hurt. Joseph treated them the best he could and they eventually made it down. Later when Joseph went back to fetch the kids, miraculously, they were all still sitting at the exact spot. To their surprise the oldest child, Ada, said that “God stayed with us”.

Finally the young family made it down and was welcomed by a much relieved group.

Best Things to do Around Escalante

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is an enormous space surrounded by the famous National Parks – Bryce Canyon NP, Zion NP, Capitol Reef NP, Grand Canyon NP and Arches National Park. In addition to National Parks this regions has many recreational areas and national forests. Here is a gallery of photos from Arizona and Utah National Parks from our earlier trip.

Few people realize that the wildly unique landscape around Escalante offers unparalleled experiences. Here are some of the popular things to do near Escalante in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

• The Wave hike
• Zebra slot canyon hike
• Peekaboo and spooky slot canyon hike
• 100 hands pictograph
• Lower calf creek falls
• Willis Creek Slot Canyon
• Grosvenor Arch
• Wahweap Hoodoos (southern part of the monument near Bad Waters)
• Long canyon drive
• Grand staircase drive
• Burr trail switchbacks

We loved our stay in Escalante and we hope to return for a longer visit, possibly in spring or fall. In future articles, I’ll share more details on the hikes and drives we loved in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Here is a video of our hike in the Peekaboo and Spooky canyon. It was at the end of this hike that I got injured and had to come back home to recover for the next few months.

If you’ve been there we’d love to hear about your experiences and your recommendations. If you’re planning to go there, do let us know if you have any questions.

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