February 6, 2026 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUWA Files Litigation to Stop Illegal Actions by Garfield County in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument – 2.6.26
Garfield County strikes at heart of the Monument, ignores federal law
Contacts:
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org
Salt Lake City, UT – Yesterday, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) filed a lawsuit and moved for an emergency injunction in federal district court, alleging that Garfield County, Utah violated federal law when it began making unauthorized “improvements” to the Hole-in-the-Rock Road. The Road runs from the junction of Highway 12, east of the town of Escalante, to the top of the cliffs above the Colorado River within the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Surrounded by wilderness-quality lands, 57 of the road’s 62 miles are within Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and 16 miles of the road are in Garfield County. It is an unpaved, primarily dirt road and core to the remote experience that defines the 1.9-million-acre National Monument.
Garfield County is no stranger to ignoring federal laws. On Monday, Feb. 3, the Department of Justice provided SUWA and others a copy of a letter sent by Garfield County on Tuesday, January 27 to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument manager regarding the County’s planned activities on the Hole-in-the-Rock Road. As detailed in the letter and verified on-the-ground, Garfield County is currently conducting and plans to continue conducting unauthorized road improvements on the Hole-in-the-Rock Road including realigning and widening the road and chip sealing (effectively paving) a 10-mile stretch of the road (changing the surface from dirt to chip seal).
While Garfield County has title to a right-of-way for the Hole-in-the-Rock Road, it does not own the road or the land beneath it (this remains federal public land) and the County is required to consult with the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) before making any improvements. The BLM is required by law to make sure that activities like these do not cause unnecessary damage to public lands and resources; BLM has entirely failed in those duties, idly standing by while the County does this unauthorized work and damages the surrounding area. As detailed in SUWA’s lawsuit and motion for an emergency injunction, each of these described activities constitutes unauthorized improvements to the road and the County must cease its work immediately and “consult” with BLM before taking any further action. The point of consultation is to allow BLM to fulfill its statutory obligations to protect monument objects and values and to determine if the County’s proposed activities are both reasonable and necessary.
Below is a statement from SUWA Staff Attorney Hanna Larsen and additional information.
“The scenic, rugged, and remote Hole-in-the-Rock Road is how many visitors first experience the majesty of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The County’s illegal actions seek to destroy that experience, turning the Road into one you might find in any city in the nation instead of a one-of-a-kind National Monument,” said Hanna Larsen, Staff Attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “Paving will lead to more, faster, and louder traffic forever changing the remote, serene backcountry experience the Monument was created to protect and that draws visitors from around the world.”
From the 2021 Proclamation re-establishing the National Monument:
“To the southeast of the Upper Escalante Canyons, adjacent to Capitol Reef National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, is a region with a rich pioneer history that functions as a gateway to the many slot canyons and arches near the Escalante River. Traversing the area is the historically significant Hole-in-the-Rock Road, which generally follows the route that Latter-day Saint pioneers constructed between 1879 and 1880 when crossing southern Utah to establish a wagon route between Escalante and southeast Utah settlements.
Today, the road provides access to many of the landscape’s resources, including Devil’s Garden, an area with hoodoos, colorful rock formations, and unique sandstone arches like the impressively delicate Metate Arch; the small but attractive Little Jumbo Arch; the widely photographed Sunrise and Sunset arches; and Chimney Rock, a remote, lonely sandstone pillar that seems to defy its otherwise flat surroundings. This area is also the location of Dance Hall Rock, an important landmark where Latter-day Saint pioneers camped and held meetings and dances when constructing the Hole-in-the-Rock Trail.
These uncompromising desert lands are home to high concentrations of rare species of bees with fascinating adaptations to their local environment, such as Diadasia bees, which build nests in the hard desert soil that feature a clay chimney on top, an architectural design that has, thus far, stumped scientists trying to understand its utility. Consisting of rock primarily from the Jurassic Period, there are many paleontological sites in this region. Among those, the sprawling Twentymile Wash Dinosaur Megatrackway consists of more than several hundred individual dinosaur tracks and what some scientists believe is a rare, mid-line tail-drag impression left in the Escalante Member of the Entrada Formation by a sauropod, or long-necked dinosaur.”
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The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters around the country dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends the redrock, organizes support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, and stewards a world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org.
