“You’re nuts.” –my coworker Shaun
It was the Thursday night before Labor Day weekend and I had nothing planned. “Well this is going to be boring.” I thought to myself. I wanted to do something that would take full advantage of the extra day off work but I was on the fast track to sleeping in and loafing around my house.
But what is there to do? Could I even come up with something that would do this amount of free time justice? I considered making a drink right then and start my defeat early.
Instead I jumped on Google Maps and started poking around. Maybe I would drive somewhere. But with so many amazing places to go I couldn’t decide on any of them. The Southwest was stacked with spots I wanted to visit so I asked myself, “How many of these could you see in three days? How far could you get, Sam?” Done. Self initiated challenge accepted. I packed the car and went to bed.
Shortly after getting to work and drinking a few cups of coffee I decided I’d drive to Salt Lake City, UT. From Spokane, WA. After work. It’s a 10 hour drive to Salt Lake so I estimated a 2AM arrival time. Luckily an email was sent out the day before informing us we could skate at 2PM to get jump on our holiday weekend. (Turns out those extra few hours became essential to the success of the adventure.) I told Shaun what I was planning on doing just before he told me I was out of my mind. Let’s do this.
I arrived just outside of Provo, UT around 3AM, found the nearest empty parking lot and set my alarm for 8AM. I had 4 hours of driving ahead of myself in the morning before I reached my first stop. Morning showed up quick and the iPhone duck alarm was relentless as usual. I rolled into the nearest gas station, filled the Subaru up for the 3rd time and hit the interstate.
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229 square miles of the most amazing sandstone cliffs you’ll ever lay your eyes on. I showed up with my trigger finger rested and ready. The park closes at 9PM during the summer which meant I could still do a fair amount of hiking and exploring before I had to catch the last tram back to Springdale.
The 2.4 mile hike to the top of this 1500 foot sandstone spine was not the safest walk I ever took but I’d say the vantage point was worth it. (Notice the two hikers resting on the ledge below for scale.)
It was shaping up to be quite the first day. I had driven 4 hours, hiked 10 miles and it wasn’t even 8PM yet. I stopped in at Zion Canon Brew Pub for some dinner and a delicious low-dosage Utah beer. By the time the tram dropped me off at the car it was dark so I headed through the park for a night shot before the moon had set.
I fired off a few until I saw something I liked on the back of the camera. Two and a half hours of night driving was ahead of me before I could get my next round of sleep so I downed a coffee and put it drive. Next stop: Page, Arizona.
“That’s a rez dog. Did you feed it? Aw man, if you fed it you gotta take it now, bro.” –Photo Guide
The drive to Page from Zion was short and dark. After another 5 hour sleep session I awoke, took a refreshing moist towelette shower, ate a few Cliff bars and went to meet my guide for day. I arrived to a desolate dirt lot containing a trash can and a stray pooch I seriously considered taking home with me. My guide showed up shortly after and by 9 o’clock we were mobbing through the desert in a jacked up Suburban heading for some of the most famous slot canyons in the world.
There are multiple sandstone slot canyons in the Page area, the most famous being Antelope Canyon. My guide wound me through Owl, Rattlesnake and Upper Antelope over the course of the morning.
Slivers of sky show themselves here and there but it is fairly dark even during the middle of the day. It may have been the most beautiful place I visited on the trip.
The sun beams that appear in Antelope Canyon only last a few minutes in each chamber per day, when the sun is high in the sky. Thankfully there wasn’t a cloud in sight.
© 2026 Sam Roscoe
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