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Arizona Slot Canyon

A slot canyon scores the Arizona desert, just one of many dotting the state's border with Utah. Slot canyons are comparatively short and unusually narrow canyons that can be several hundred feet deep. A region needs a special combination of rainfall and geographical features to make slot canyons possible. Rainwater and snowmelt cut and rubbed the red rock of this region for eons to form these slots.

Photograph by Bill Hatcher