Grand Staircase Escalante Partners
Newsroom
Josie Bassett
Iris
Ms. Millie Vanillie
Patrick
PAWtners!
Welcome to a whole slew of canine friends who support the Monument: Loki, Dasher, Pogo, Smokey, Ms. MillieVanillie, and Puq who all recently became official GSEP PAWtners!
Your Monument companion can be a PAWtner too, for a $25 annual donation. In return, you will receive a special PAWtners sticker, your pet’s photo in our gallery, and a digital toolkit that reviews desert safety and etiquette.
Becoming a PAWtner means your four-legged friend joins a community of animal lovers who care about Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Our program informs visitors about hazards specific to the region, explains pet etiquette expectations, and recognizes the pet that has made your trips to the Monument so special.
Your donation helps support restoration, education, and stewardship efforts to ensure these lands and the adventures they inspire last for generations to come.
Welcome to our new PAWtners, and say hello if you run into them on the Monument.
Family Tradition of Protecting Public Land
"My wife, Mary and I donate to Grand Staircase Escalante Partners (GSEP) because after I worked for the National Park Service 37 ½ years we are “hung-up” on protecting public land. We can’t contribute to every piece of public land but we donate annually to 6...
Dinosaur Discoveries
"My first very first day in GSENM was as a first-year paleontology graduate student at the University of Utah in the fall of 2004, lugging a helicopter net deep into the badlands for later retrieval of an articulated dinosaur skeleton. From that moment, I was hooked...
Cherished Family Memories in the Monument
"At sixteen, mom and I made a covenant to visit all of the National Parks and Monuments. Going East to go to the West, we drove out to the desert each summer and winter to explore more of our favorite part of the country: Utah. With a freshly printed TripTik as our...
Ever-Changing Canyons
"Friends have said they love the slickrock desert because it’s timeless. But the canyons keep changing. Each time I visit my favorite places, I see something new and extraordinary. Fresh layers of sediment banking the creek, washed in by flash floods. A delicate...
Motorcycle Wanderings and Hell’s Backbone
On a never-ending quest to find the most remote places in southern Utah, Dave was drawn to the solitary adventure of Grand Staircase. He is a long-time visitor to the area, often on his trusted BMW motorcycle, and has always loved popping in to Hell’s Backbone Grill...
Inspiration in Grand Staircase
When I needed to get my head right after a failed business, I went to one of my favorite places on earth, Grand Staircase. I set out for six days in the canyons with little more than a sleeping bag and a jar of Justin’s almond butter. I returned with a renewed sense...
First Time Through the Lands that Became the Monument
Imagine a late summer afternoon in Escalante, circa 1973. I and several of my friends were about to start a 10 day backpacking trip, down the Escalante River, from the H12 bridge to Lake Powell, where we would be picked up by a boat from the Bullfrog marina. But step...
Highlights of Our Scoping Comment Goals
As our name "Partners" indicates, we seek to collaborate with organizations, agencies, Tribal partners, scientists, biologists, paleontologists, guides and outfitters, community members and others to determine the best strategies for achieving our mission to honor the...
Op-ed: Utah’s monuments should not be stuck in a tug-of-war
In my role as executive director for Grand Staircase Escalante Partners, I advocate for the importance of Grand Staircase as a connected landscape because of what we stand to lose if we fracture it and do not actively protect what is vulnerable, fragile and...
