Silvestre Vélez de Escalante  Silvestre Vélez de Escalante (flourished 1768–1779) was a Franciscan missionary and explorer of the Southwest United States during the late 18th century. He is known for his journal, in which he described the expeditions he went on. These included a failed overland expedition in 1776. Escalante and his superior Francisco Atanasio Domínguez, cartographer Don Bernardo Miera y Pacheco, and eight others left from Santa Fe, New Mexico trying to reach Monterey, California (they were joined soon after by 2 more), during which they passed through what is now southwest Colorado and Utah—where they were the first white men to travel— through the east side of the Great Basin, and returned to Santa Fe by way of Arizona, skirting the eastern portion of the Grand Canyon, and passing through the badlands of western New Mexico. Escalante namesakes include Escalante Desert, Escalante River, Escalante (town), Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and the Escalante Elementary & High schools (Rio Arriba County, New Mexico).