Intro

In the fall of 2025, under banner-blue skies, I backpacked into a remote Utah canyon to help celebrate my friend Ace’s birthday. The highlight was a hundred-foot natural arch, located at a widening in the gulch, where there was enough room for the ten of us (and five giddy dogs) to spread out and set up our camps with fantastic views of the span and enough distance to smother anyone’s snoring.

Ace, Devaki, and Walter pitched their tents in the shadow of an alcove. Axel and his dog Enzo were atop a knoll, on a level area with outcrops behind them. Elliot, an immensely talented photographer, chose an elevated spot with a soaring view and organized his kit under the shade of hackberry and maple trees, their branches entwined, his back to an orange cliff. He hung an instant camera from a limb of the maple and placed his digital gently on a slab of broken sandstone. His snap front shirt—teal leaning toward viridian—was