Hiking the Toadstool Hoodoos Trail in Grand Staircase-Escalante, Utah is much fun! The trail is great also for kids and doesn’t take too long.
*We use ads so we can pay for our travels and continue to bring you free travel advice. We also use affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, we may receive a small commission at no cost to you. See our Privacy Policy for more information.
We have done many road trips and going around in Utah since we have some family living there. Any time we visit them we try to combine it to a visit in a national park or some other interesting site. Utah is one of our favorite states to explore!
Surprisingly, one of the best hikes of our road trip was not in a national park, but just a small trail starting from the side of the road on the border of Utah and Arizona, in Grand Staircase-Escalante.
We had just left Zion National Park behind us and spent a night in Kanab. Then we headed towards Page were we had our next hotel reservation. While looking at the map I spotted some interesting rock formations—hoodoos, close to the road, and when we saw the sign for it, we decided to stop.
And stopping there was definitely worth it since we did find the rocks called Toadstool Hoodoos. They are located in Southern Utah about 20 minutes drive from the border of Arizona.
Beautiful but disputed Grand Staircase-Escalante
The hoodoos are along the Toadstool Hoodoos Trail and they are part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. When Bill Clinton made this area a national monument in 1996 some critiqued him and questioned the president’s authority to designate such a large piece of land as a monument.
The Grand Staircase-Escalante has multiple interesting rock formations, gorges and canyons shaped by rain water, and even petroglyphs. They have also found many fossils and animal prints from these areas, as it used to be habited by dinosaurs. In fact, in 2013 they found a completely new species of dinosaur.
The name Grand Staircase-Escalante comes from it’s massive rock wall that looks like a staircase. Escalante is a river running through this area.
In 2017 President Donald Trump ordered the size of the national monument to be reduced by 47%. By doing that he opened some doors to mining and road building on the Grand Staircase-Escalante. There were several law suits pending against this reduction until President Joe Biden pulled back his order.
How long is the Toadstool Hoodoos Trail?
Toadstool Hoodoos Trail is not too long but even more gorgeous. It is about 1,8 miles (2,9 kilometres) and takes about 40 minutes to walk it through. But I would reserve more time there in order to really see all the hoodoos and take some photos.
The trail is intereslingly shaped like a letter Y and you can decide to see all of the trail or just head back after you see the hoodoos. So it is really up to you how much time you spend on it and how long you make it to be.
the Toadstool Hoodoos Trail and the toadstool rocks
Toadstool Trail starts right by the Highway 89. There is a small parking spot with porta potties, and a sign that that tells you about the area.
When we arrived there was only couple other cars there and view people heading out to the trail. But the parking area is not huge so I can image that on busy school holidays it can get full pretty quick.
This trail is well suitable also for kids. The trail follows along a sandy base of some sort of a dried stream. There were times when we walked on it and sometimes the trail was going next to it. Couple of times we had to climb some smaller rocks but nothing too difficult.
Our older daughter was having fun jumping on the rocks while our smaller one took a little nap on a carrier.
The first toadstool we saw was quite impressive, and one can see it from far away. There were only a few people among us. It was so nice to be able to enjoy this place without huge crowds and take photos at your own pace.
These rocks have been shaped by wind and erosion. On top of the softer sandstone there is a harder shell of rock. The harder rock will wear down more slowly than the softer rock, leaving the top rock bigger.
A toadstool is another name for a mushroom, and that is exactly what these rocks remind us of. Some day the erosion will shatter the pillar of these rocks and they will fall. How sad is that!
After the hoodoo rocks the trail devided into two directions. To be honest, we were not sure what way to go since the trail is not marked and there were several paths that looked like a continuation of the trail.
The other one ends on top of the hill with a beautiful view down to a valley. and another one looked like it was a really steep climb. The other one had more rocks.
We then decided we had seen enough rock formations and we headed back to the car. The day was getting hotter and it was close to lunch hour.
Because of the hot weather, I recommend doing this trail early in the morning. There is no shade anywhere along this route. We were there in April and it was already getting quite hot there. So I can’t imagine what it is like in the summer time. It is also easier to find parking in the morning.
Where should you stay while visiting Toadstool Hoodoos?
We drove towards the Toadstool Hoodoos from the Zion National Park and stayed the first night in Kanab in Utah. Also Page is a great place to stay at if you want to visit Grand Staircase-Escalante.
Kanab is a very popular tourist town because it is close to many of the parks and they have a great selection of hotels. From there it takes about 40 minutes to drive to Toadstool Hoodoos.
We stayed the night at La Quinta Inn by Wyndham Kanab and they had a great complimentary breakfast.
From Kanab we then drove to Page where we visited Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend. I absolutely recommend seeing both of them if you are in the area. They are just breathtaking!
Page is on the Arizona side and it takes about half an hour to drive to Toadstool Hoodoos from there. We stayed in Comfort Inn & Suites Page at Lake Powell and it was in a great location regarding to visiting both Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend.
Page has many great hikes and it is not that far from the Grand Canyon either. It only takes about 2,5 hours to get to South Rim from there. If you decide to take Highway 89 to south instead, you can stop at Wupatki National Monument or at Sunset Volcano Crater National Monument.
While planning your trip and route you should remember that depending on the season Utah and Arizona might be on different times.
❊❊❊
We really love hiking and many times the trails we had not planned to take end up being the best ones on our trips. Both Utah and Arizona are especially great for that! There are so many parks, canyons and trails. It is just amazing!
Our kids also enjoy being in the nature and they are always ready to go on a hike. Here are our tips for hiking with kids.
🇺🇸 OUR USA TRAVEL RESOURCES 🇺🇸
🗝 We use this site to book hotel rooms and this site to book apartments when ever we travel.
🚗 We use DiscoverCars for car rentals everywhere in the world.
🗺 When looking for tours we use either Viator or GetYourGuide. They are both great.
🎫 Ticketmaster is a reliable site to get concert and event tickets.
✈️ With Priority Pass membership you can access over 1300 airport lounges all over the world.
📞 If you need a data package to navigate or make calls, Yesim works well for that.
🩹Always protect yourself with an insurance. We use SafetyWing when we travel.
Have you been to Toadstool Hoodoos or seen similar rocks somewhere else?
I’ve got to get the southwestern US on my travel plans! I would love to see the hoodoos and other incredible scenes at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It looks so surreal! Plus, it’s such a national treasure, given the unique rock formations and archeological history–let’s hope those lawsuits prevent its reduction. SMH
Absolutely Jackie! There are so many beautiful places and so much to see there!
I have not ventured out to this part of the world yet but would love to experience the natural beauty and trails that you could hike. It is very rigged but the colour of the rocks are a photographers dream shoot. The Grand Staircase-Escalante and Toadstool Hoodoos seem to be very popular with people who are well versed with this area but not as promoted to the outside world so thanks for telling the story to a wider audience. I would want to do this with my kids so a bit of preparation and planning surely needed. Thanks for sharing this with us .
I’m glad if this helps you to plan your future ventures.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is wonderful and I love those the hoodoos along with the Toadstool Trail monuments are truly photogenic. I never knew about that toadstool means a type of mushroom and really these rocks look similar to a mushroom. Thanks for sharing great information about this Toadstool trail in Utah.
You are welcome Yukti! I’m glad if this helps.
The place truly looks like some other planet. The hoodoos are something I have never seen before. The pictures are so amazing that I feel like spending a lot of time exploing the trail. Thanks for sharing so many interesting facts about the grand staircase escalante and why it is calledso.
The hoodoos are so beautiful. I remember when I saw them for the very first time, I coulnd’t believe it.
I drove right through this area last year and wish we made this stop but we were driving at night. I love that sometimes to best trails aren’t in a big park! We would love to try out this trail – bet it gets HOT in the summer! Saving for future reference ;)- thanks for sharing!
I agree! Sometimes there are great things to see that aren’t so famous, and aren’t in the parks. You just have to find out about them and you often get to enjoy them with no crowds.
Spectacular! I’ve never even heard of these toadstools and now I’d love to see them. I hope that more of the park remains as a monument and isn’t ruined by drilling.
It truly was! We loved it.
Don’t you love it when you discover new things on your travels that you weren’t expecting to see? This hike looks amazing — obviously for the views but also for the fact that it wasn’t swamped with tourists! I love the view of the toadstool from afar – it looks so majestic and inviting amongst all the big smooth rocks next to it.
Thank you Diana! Yes, that sure is the best part of the traveling. Discovering something amazing that you weren’t even prepared for.
I love the hoodoos! I visited Grand Staircase-Escalante a few years back and was blown away by the formations. I however made the mistake of visiting during the summer and paid dearly for it. I couldn’t believe how hot it was! But so worth it!
Oh I can imagine, it was already getting pretty warm and this was only April. We love hoodoos too.