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A few miles north of Kanab, Utah, a golden eagle spreads her wings on the warm air of a thermal and begins to climb in wide circles. When she has risen a few thousand feet, she glides toward the northeast and soon crosses the western edge of the 1.7 million acre Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument. Below her unfolds a territory of multicolored cliffs, plateaus, mesas, buttes, pinnacles, and canyons. The eagle's flight will take her across the three distinct sections of the Monument: The Grand Staircase, The Kaiparowits Plateau, and the canyons of the Escalante.

Despite their different topographies, these three sections share certain qualities: great distances, enormously difficult terrain, and a remoteness rarely equaled in the lower 48 states. Human endeavors have always been limited on these lands, yet their very remoteness and isolation have attracted seekers of adventure or solitude and those who hope to understand the natural world through the Monument's wealth of scientific information.

"...But it's a big country out there. With a topo map and a beat-up jeep --- or better yet, a backpack --- there's still solitude to be found, adventure with a smell of danger, and the wonder of a raw, unfinished, and awesomely beautiful world."