Water escape: tour boats take you gently down the stream.

• Author: Kennedy, Linda T.
• Position: Executive Living

Many people head for Utah's mountains in the hot and dry summer months. But while it may be the hottest region in the Beehive State, Southern Utah also offers some of the hottest deals on water. There's even a tour that goes out after the desert sun sets, when the temperatures are just right. And given that they run into the fall months, you can cruise on the Colorado or ride across Wahweap Bay anytime, no sweat at all.

Canyonlands by Night & Day

It's hard to imagine stadium seating on a boat, but Canyonlands by Night & Day Tours has it.

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For 46 years, passengers have been boarding the long, flat bottomed Moab Queen II for a slow moving, evening ride on the Colorado River. But the trip provides far more than a guide pointing out scenery. Once it's dark, light illuminates the canyon walls. Then, 144 passengers see a show choreographed with music and narration about the history of the area through cowboy and American Indian tales. But don't expect a theme park experience; there are no splashes and water effects. Rather what you see is only limited by your imagination.

"There are many laser shows but few light shows in the world. When you go to [a show like] the Pyramids in Egypt, you just sit in a stadium and watch the lights move, and they have a recorded program but the audience doesn't move," explains Preston Paxman, manager of Canyonlands by Night & Day Tours. "But we board the boat and there's a guide that will show you sights and get your imagination going. And then when we get four miles up river, it's totally dark. At that point we turn on 40,000 watts of light and head back down the river." A truck carrying a generator on a nearby highway moves with them, creating the illusion of life on the walls with the light and shadows. "It's all timed--the boat has to be at a certain place at just the right time and the equipment on the highway has to be at the right place at the right time."

The tour features moments such as moonlight rising on the high cliffs, and stargazing in the dark to the strains of patriotic music. "If you don't get goose bumps from it, you're not alive," says Paxman.

Tours begin in March, continue through October and include an indoor Dutch oven dinner on the banks of the Colorado River before sunset. There are a myriad of specials and discounts, but a family of four, two adults and two children, can have...