Mountain climbing the Toadstool Hoodoos Path in Grand Staircase–Escalante seems like stepping right into a desert dreamscape the place geology takes middle stage. The quick, simple path winds via sandy washes and layered cliffs, every step revealing extra of the stark magnificence carved by time. Slightly below a mile in, the path delivers its showpiece: a putting hoodoo of Navajo Sandstone, an enormous caprock completely balanced on a slender pedestal, standing like a pure monument towards the sky. It’s a hike that’s much less about distance and extra about marvel—accessible, photogenic, and unforgettable, particularly within the shifting gentle of dawn or sundown.
Trailhead elevation 4,457′
Do not miss dawn or sundown
Mountain climbing the Toadstool Hoodoos
It’s our final night in Kanab, and pop and I are off to squeeze in yet one more hike. After a day of rain, the skies lastly start to interrupt, and we gamble on catching a sundown forty-five minutes away alongside the Toadstool Hoodoos Path in Grand Staircase–Escalante. We roll as much as the trailhead with an hour to spare, with that acquainted pleasure of chasing gentle collectively.
The path leads us north right into a panorama that seems like strolling via the pages of Earth’s geologic diary—layers of Dakota, Entrada, and Carmel layers rising round us like weathered monuments. A pair from Virginia pauses to ask if Dad is a few well-known photographer from Web page—perhaps it’s the tripod slung over my shoulder, or perhaps it’s simply the way in which he carries himself out right here, like he belongs within the wild. We chat, commerce a couple of phrases concerning the magnificence round us, after which press on.
Quickly the trail drops right into a sandy wash, twisting and turning because it pulls us nearer towards the hoodoos.
A bit of greater than three quarters of a mile into the stroll, we’re face-to-face with the star of the hike: an attention grabbing toadstool hoodoo, twenty ft of Navajo Sandstone balanced like a crown on its pedestal.
As we realized a few years in the past, these hoodoos had been shaped via a course of of abrasion that befell over thousands and thousands of years. They consist of soppy sandstone layers topped by more durable, extra resistant rock caps. Rain, wind, and temperature fluctuations regularly wore away the softer sandstone beneath the caprock, carving out slender columns and creating the “mushroom-like” shapes that resemble toadstools. The more durable caprock protects the underlying stone from eroding as shortly, which is why the hoodoos keep their distinctive shapes whereas the encircling panorama continues to put on down.
We take a couple of pictures, then I ship my drone up, capturing the hoodoo from angles no human eye might attain.
The clouds do not appear to be they will give method for the Milky Means, but it surely doesn’t matter. As a substitute, we wander the formations, watching because the final gentle of day paints the hoodoo’s western face in tender, glowing gold. For a couple of minutes, the world is totally nonetheless—simply me, my dad, and this unbelievable stone big standing towards the approaching evening.
When the solar lastly surrenders to the horizon, we make our method again via the fading gentle, buying and selling the desert’s stillness for burgers and beer again in Kanab. It is a simple hike and pop and I are pleased that we lastly acquired round to checking it out.
One other evening, one other reminiscence—yet one more thread woven into the lengthy, wealthy tapestry of adventures with my previous man. Tomorrow, we’ll head out to St George, prepared for extra trails, extra laughs, and extra moments I do know I’ll carry ceaselessly.
