Escalante sits along Scenic Byway 12 at 5,820 feet, surrounded by the slickrock canyons of the Escalante River drainage. It is a primary basecamp for hikers, backpackers, and canyoneers exploring Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

The town offers lodging, dining, outfitters, and supplies, with Escalante Petrified Forest State Park and Wide Hollow Reservoir just west of town.

Militia scouts passing through in 1866 called the area Potato Valley for the wild potatoes growing there. Settlers from Panguitch arrived in 1875, and the first homes were built the following spring.

The name was suggested by A.H. Thompson of John Wesley Powell’s survey in honor of Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, the Franciscan explorer who crossed Utah in 1776, though Escalante himself never entered the valley. In 1879 the town was the last settlement the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition passed through on its way to the San Juan country.