I just read John Husar’s articles on the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Southern Utah with excitement and trepidation (Sports, June 21-22).
Having camped and hiked through this remote part of the Earth two times in the past four years, I, like Mr. Husar, find it absolutely stunning. But make no mistake, a trip to Escalante is not a Disney-like adventure–it’s hot, difficult to escape the sun, there are rattlesnakes and very, very little water. Yet that is where its beauty lies–in its desert isolation.
I only hope that articles like Mr. Husar’s help foster the preservation of this land from development instead of promoting it to the point where it becomes another easily accessible, overcrowded national park (like Yosemite or the Grand Canyon) that changes this precious landscape forever. It was the last mapped place in the lower 48 states for a reason; let’s leave it that way.
