The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument is a Bureau of Land Management wild area covering more than 7500 sq kilometres in southern Utah east of Kanab. It's an area of Hoo Doos and slit canyons with few roads and 4wd vehicles recommended.

On previous trips, I explored the outer areas and took some remarkable images. But on this trip, my son went along, and we rented a Jeep to explore the interior much more deeply.

It was one of those trips where the weather just won't cooperate. Middays were fairly clear, but mornings and evenings were consistently just blah light. We still had a great time, and I was able to get this photo of him in the broad area of one of the many slit canyons that I'll always treasure.

In the high deserts of Utah, the only weather you can be sure of is a hot summer.