Sometimes in life you stumble upon some of the best experiences by accident. The Grand Staircase Escalante is 1.7 million acres of BLM land. When we decided to head here we didn’t know much about it other than we could stay for free and that it was a huge area. It turns out it is a beautiful area with extremely difficult terrain and a remoteness that is rarely equaled in the lower 48 states!

We absolutely love Boondocking and this was the most secluded area we’ve ever camped in. We didn’t see another human for a week! We hiked and saw wildlife everyday. The spot we picked was near “The Wave“. It was neat because when we got to the location that we had found on Freecampsites.net it was dark and snowing, but in the morning we were surprised to see the huge Buttes around us.

 We didn’t see another human for a week!

The Traveling Pomeranian went hiking with me and found this area very Butte-iful.

We call this RV Camouflage…Nobody around for miles…

We stayed right on the beautiful Paria River.

It was really neat because as remote as it was, we had cell phone service and with the help of our Wilson Booster we were able to work just as efficient as if we were in a big city.

Kanab, Utah = “Little Hollywood”

Once we left the Paria River boondocking site we headed to the nearest town, Kanab Utah. It’s called “Little Hollywood” because of all the films that have been shot here. Most of them were Westerns but it was neat to eat where John Wayne signed the table our food was served on.

What blew me away is how great of an adventure town this is. There is incredible hiking in any direction. It’s near Grand Staircase Escalante, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and more! If you’re into Dinosaurs it’s one of the premiere spots to hike where they’ve found Dinosaur bones and even has hikes where you can hike near fossilized dinosaur tracks are!

From what we heard from the locals it’s packed throughout the year but the winter is when it dies down and they get a remission from the adventure seeking tourists.

We planned on staying at an RV Park and when we got into town we stopped to grab a bite and I called around to the parks. I couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone…So I had an idea, there was a Holiday Inn Express and I called them and asked if we could Boondock for a night in their parking lot so we could check out the town before heading to Zion. They said we could stay for 2 days if we wanted! We still planned on staying for just a day but it turns out we liked this town so much we took them up on the offer. It was a win/win because it brought money into the town in a dead time of year. We had work to do and instead of running our generator in the parking lot to charge our batteries so we could have our equipment charged, we headed to a local coffee shop we noticed next door. It turns out that it was an outdoor adventure store that sold every type of gear you would need to go hiking, climbing etc but they also happen to serve coffee and have a lounge area. What a great concept! We worked here as our virtual office for 2 days and met some incredible people. Just think about it, it brings an adventure crowd and then they can sit around and talk about adventures they’ve taken.

Almost everyone we spoke with in town told us we have to check out Best Friends Animal Society, and we mean EVERYONE. It’s the largest Animal Sanctuary in the country and they adopt out more animals than anywhere else either. National Geographic did a TV Show called “Dog Town” about this place. They give free tours of the complex everyday. It’s not a building you get a tour of, they drive you to all the buildings and it takes hours. The place is HUGE. We were really impressed, both of us are allergic to cats and the cat buildings were so spotless neither one of us were affected and best of all, nothing smelled! We highly recommend checking this place out if you’re in the area. Of course it’s pet friendly so The Traveling Pomeranian came with on the tour.