Grand Staircase Has Utah's Best Food, Newest Dinosaur

Hells Backbone Grill

Hell's Backbone Grill is Utah's restaurant of the year, according to this article in City Weekly. The grill is located in the town of Boulder, along All American Byway 12, on the edge of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

That monument has recently become famous for its growing herd of exotic dinosaurs and the newest is scheduled to be introduced to the public on Feb 7, according to this news release.

More info on both subjects are given in the article excerpts below.

Located about four hours south of Salt Lake City and enveloped by the grounds of the rustic Boulder Mountain Lodge, Hell’s Backbone Grill is a magical place. In my opinion, it’s Utah’s Chez Panisse, a restaurant where the vast majority of the food comes from Hell’s Backbone’s “no-harm” organic farm, which produces some 12,000 pounds of produce annually, not to mention breakfast eggs from 130 heritage-breed hens, 75 heirloom fruit trees, grass-fed local beef, lamb and more. The organic farm is worked with sustainability in mind, and with what owners Blake Spalding and Jennifer Castle call “Buddhist values of right livelihood.”

And, after all, when all is said and done, it’s the food that makes this my favorite Utah restaurant. The meals I’ve had here were nothing less than exceptional...

From local ranchers to visiting rock stars, everyone gets the same affectionate treatment...

Hells Backbone Grill is open seasonally, from mid-March to early December.

Highway 12 is kept open year-round and winter scenery is spectacular.

Meet Lythronax Argestes

Come join Dr. Alan Titus as he gives a personal introduction of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument’s newest dinosaur, Friday, February 7, at the Bureau of Land Management’s Kanab Visitor Center starting at 7 p.m. The presentation is free and open to the public.

This newly named animal, Lythronax argestes (Lie-throw-nacks ar-jest-eez), is a tyrannosaur of the same family asT-rex, just 12 million years older! In fact, it is so much older than T-rex that it is the oldest known true tyrannosaur ever named. In keeping with spirit of its descendant’s name, Lythronax‘s name means “southern king of gore.”