A Monumental Attraction

On Sept. 18, President Bill Clinton used his powers under the 1906 Antiquities Act to make a shocking proclamation. In one brief ceremony, with neither congressional approval nor public hearings, Clinton closed the door on mining massive Utah coal fields and created… A Monumental Attraction

President Clinton proclaimed Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante as the country’s newest national monument from the political safety of the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

He had correctly anticipated a volatile response from the conservative Beehive State. But he had little to lose.

Utah was going to vote Republican in the November elections no matter what the Democratic president did. The action, however, was likely to gain Clinton environmental votes in states with bigger electoral plums.

“Monument” status for federal land is more liberal than “national park” or “wilderness” status. There’s plenty of wiggle room for a little grazing, hunting and even some mining and oil drilling to continue in the new 1.7-million-acre monument.

Nevertheless, Clinton’s proclamation appears to have ended a coal boom before it started.

Monument status snuffed out large-scale plans to mine the Kaiparowits Plateau for what possibly is the nation’s largest reserve of low-sulphur coal.

The Dutch-owned Andalex Resources company, which has mineral leases on the land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), will be given options to trade for areas outside the monument. Andalex, incidentally, had planned to export the coal to Pacific Rim nations.

Protest over losing this local economic windfall continues. Lawsuits are being filed. State and congressional lawmakers are probing for loopholes to circumvent the president’s proclamation.

Conoco is going ahead with plans for oil exploration in the monument.

Meanwhile, the Grand Staircase-Escalante remains stunning and largely undeveloped.

Combined with contiguous Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef national parks plus Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, the monument is the core of the largest protected area in the lower 48 states.

Even the determined faith of Mormon pioneers left only a handful of scattered settlements here.

Commitments of several days are required to make cursory hiking ventures into the rugged rock canyons beyond the monument’s dearth of roads.

This remoteness is why the Smoky Mountain coal deposits were not mined decades ago.

Inaccessibility will be the lure and the bane of tourists already surging into the region like a flash flood.

“In February, we had as many calls on Escalante as we had on the 2002 Olympics,” said Ken Kraus, Utah Travel Council director.

In March, the number of requests for backcountry permits at the Interagency Visitor Center in Escalante, Utah, doubled from the previous year. Licensed outfitters in the area have increased from nine in 1990 to 40 this spring.

The president’s proclamation was a complete surprise to BLM. Grand Staircase-Escalante is the first national monument the agency has ever managed.

“Since the proclamation, we’ve had media from overseas and back East and everywhere else,” said Jerry Meredith, the BLM official in charge of the monument.

Growth in visitation was apparent even before the buzz sparked by the president’s monumental proclamation. Spin-off visitors were filtering in from adjacent parks and the nearby Paria Canyon Wilderness.

Visitor increases began to accelerate two years ago when State Highway 12, which threads through the heart of the monument, was named one of the most scenic roads in America by Sunset magazine.

But in this first season as an international attraction, Grand Staircase-Escalante has no signs to inform visitors they are entering the monument boundaries; no pamphlets describing the features in any detail.

BLM has only two campgrounds, two backcountry rangers and two enforcement agents for an expanse comparable to the Idaho Panhandle north of Interstate 90.

The only major paved roads besides Highway 12 are Highway 89 along the southern end and a section of Burr Trail Road.

Other main access routes, such as Hole-in-the-Rock and Smoky Mountain roads, are scratched out of clay that becomes greasy and impassible with rain.

Visitors driving into the backcountry must carry water and contingencies for the possibility that weather could delay the exit by days.

“One of the things we’re stressing is that this isn’t your typical developed recreation unit,” Meredith said. “Roads are primitive. The country is hostile. A flash flood can wipe out a section of road in a heartbeat.”

Almost as an afterthought, he said, “People die out there every year.”

There’s political precedent for swiftly securing land this raw. Since its passage 90 years ago, the Antiquities Act has been used by every president, except Nixon, Reagan and Bush, a total of 66 times to create or expand national monuments. Grand Canyon, Grand Teton and Olympic national parks were first protected under the act.

At this early evolutionary stage in the monument’s history, visitors can enjoy a pioneering experience.

Tourists stop each other at lodges and restaurants to pass notes and observations on where to go. The grapevine substitutes for all the signs, books and roadside attractions tourists find in a national park.

“It’s exciting not knowing what’s around the next bend,” one sixty-something woman said from the driver’s seat of her rental Jeep off the Burr Trail.

In a week of wandering with backpacks, my wife and I could barely scratch the surface of Grand Staircase-Escalante. Time here only reveals more places for further exploration.

The area has world-class hiking, but few defined trails. We followed the landscape, not a path.

One camp was in a canyon, on a ledge safely out of reach of flash floods. Another day, we hiked an expanse of tortured rock plateau extending for miles.

Most memorable was the campsite perched on the rim above the Escalante River. The Monument’s value filled us here, as we watched the evening shadows rise from the river, swallowing the red-rock walls to fill the canyon with blackness.

Sunset brought deathly quiet, interrupted only by a rock wren’s song. A coyote took a turn. Then a raven. All finally submitted under a seas of stars to the lullaby of an owl.

Of course, there’s danger in romanticizing this deceptive land.

The capable staff at the Interagency Visitor Center in Escalante - an important stop for anyone visiting the monument - warns against random exploration.

This isn’t just over-cautious government-speak.

“Linking canyons can be incredibly amazing and complex,” explained Grant Johnson, a guide based in Escalante for seven years. “Hikers can slide down the smooth sandstone into what looks like an easy route only to discover they can’t get out.”

Johnson hesitates to pinpoint hiking destinations.

“The best way to see this country is to get a detailed map, good advice and a weather report, then start walking toward whatever looks good to you,” he said. “That’s how I’ve discovered the best stuff.

“If I tell people specific places, then they start seeing people, and that detracts from the experience.”

Indeed, there’s a price to pay for heading straight to the noted attractions of Circle Cliffs, Devil’s Garden, Calf Creek Falls, Coyote Gulch, Egypt, Peek-A-Boo Canyon, Escalante Natural Bridge, Grosvenor Arch, Hackberry Canyon or Cockscomb Ridge.

The thrill of the find still exists here for those who seek it.

“Some places are more immediately attractive, ” said Craig Sorenson, BLM recreation specialist in Escalante. “People think the Kaiparowits Plateau is ugly in comparison to the Excalante canyons, but I think it’s amazing.

“I was just out the other day with my wife and we found the most pristine Indian ruin, not a human track around, not that far from town.

“There’s a lot to be discovered here that will never be in a guidebook.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 4 color photos Map of area