Whether we’re visiting a national park, state park, or any other attraction, I try to make the visitor center my first stop. Yes, I do a ton of research before we go anywhere to make sure we don’t miss anything major, but there is always a chance that I miss something.
With Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, hitting the Visitor Center first wasn’t an option because it’s so huge!
- First, there are four different visitor centers spread out around the edges of the monument, and
- Second, the visitor centers aren’t open every day.
The northern boundary of the national monument is near Cannonville, where we found one of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument visitor centers.
Cannonville Visitor Center
We ended up visiting the Cannonville Visitor Center after driving through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on Utah’s Scenic Byway 12.
The Cannonville Visitor Center offers visitors information about and a topographic relief model of the Grand Staircase-Escalante area. Interpretive displays, artifacts, and murals, highlight the human geography of early settlers and Native Americans.
The visitor center also has books, maps, and gifts for purchase.
Know Before You Go
- The Cannonville Visitor Center is located off Scenic Byway 12 at 10 Center Street, Cannonville, Utah, 84718, just 15 miles east of the turnoff to Bryce Canyon National Park.
- The Visitor Center summer hours — mid-March to mid-November — are 8:00 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday. It is closed in the winter.
- At the visitor center, you can see a model of the Staircase, early Paiute and Pioneer life artifacts, and a botanical garden. There are also clean, regular flush restrooms.
- Nearby is Kodachrome Basin State Park and Grosvenor Arch.
