Our Yurt Hotel Passion in Escalante, Utah
Becoming Utah’s first yurt rental company
Jan and Scott Roundy are the owners of Escalante Yurts, a luxury yurt hotel located just 1½ miles north of the beautiful little town of Escalante, Utah. The town is situated on scenic byway 12 in the heart of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Escalante Yurts is sandwiched between Bryce Canyon National Park and Capitol Reef National Park.
Construction on the yurt camping site began in May of 2016, and our first guests arrived in April of 2017. Since our luxury yurt hotel opened, we have had visitors from almost every state in the Union and have had visitors from multiple foreign countries.
Scott’s grandfather Wallace was born in Escalante, and his dad Jerry was also born here. Upon retirement, Jerry moved back to Escalante, purchased 30 acres and built a home. As time passed and Jerry got older, he dropped hints to Scott from time to time that he would like the home and the property to stay in the family.
Luxury Yurt Camping
Scott was raised in what used to be a small town called Rexburg, Idaho. While in high school, he met and fell in love with Jan. They married and moved to Utah to attend University and eventually welcomed a girl and then a boy into their family. Scott graduated with an accounting degree and did whatever he could to NOT work as an accountant. He bought a landscaping business and they settled in northern Utah. He also spent 20+ years at Deer Valley Ski Resort as a snowcat driver during the winter seasons.
Jan worked as an office manager for a busy orthodontist in Park City, Utah. Scott and Jan lived in a beautiful part of the world and enjoyed their careers and raising their children. They had no reason to change anything. With their children grown, they began to settle into life being empty nesters. But then Scott’s dad Jerry would drop a hint now and then about Scott buying the house in order to keep it in the family. Scott and Jan never imagined the changes that were coming their way in their future luxury yurt lodging business.
One weekend in 2015 they were visiting Jerry and Sherree in Escalante, and the subject of Scott buying the house came up. Not being in a position to buy a second home, Scott assured his dad that someone would buy the house and do something really fun with the house and the property. On the ride home, Scott said to Jan, “What if it was us? It should be us that does something fun with it.” The rest of the car ride home was spent speculating what we might do, if we would like to do it, how we would pull it off. Could we pull it off? That ride home was the start of an incredible journey for Scott and Jan as they developed the first luxury yurt hotel in Utah. They pride themselves on the amenities, the decor, and the level of service they provide. They have deep roots in Escalante and love the area. It has been their happy place for so many years, why not make it your happy place too?
It’s our “happy place”, so why not make it yours?