slot canyon

An extremely narrow, deep canyon — sometimes only a few feet wide but hundreds of feet deep, carved through sandstone by flash floods. Light enters from above in shafts and beams, reflecting off the sinuous walls in patterns that change with the hour. Slot canyons are found throughout the Colorado Plateau — Antelope Canyon, Buckskin Gulch, the Narrows of Zion. They are among the most beautiful and most dangerous places in the desert: a storm miles away can fill a slot canyon wall-to-wall with floodwater in minutes.