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SANDTHRAX CANYON, Garfield County — A Payson man and his two sons were rescued Saturday after spending several days lost in a southern Utah canyon.
Jason Knight, 35, was in Sandthrax Canyon, camping with his two boys, age 11 and 8 years old. The group arrived on Tuesday and were expected home on Friday, according to a written statement from the Wayne County Sheriff's Office.
Officials were contacted when a concerned citizen called them and said the man and two boys went into the canyon, but didn't come back to their camp for three days, the statement said.
Search and rescue teams from Garfield and Wayne counties set out Saturday morning to find Knight and his sons. Just before noon, a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter spotted the boys at the top of the canyon — and 30 minutes later, their father was found 350 feet down the bottom of the canyon, trapped by the tight canyon walls.
Everyone was rescued.
The boys hadn't had water since Wednesday, when Knight told them to stay put "to prevent further incident," the Wayne County statement said. They were dehydrated but otherwise OK, officials said.
Knight was also uninjured.
