Looking back I suppose I had a thing for golden landscapes - there was a color palette to my grade school bucket list - and visions of amber and apricot swirled in my head for decades to come. Dream destinations of those years were Africa, San Francisco and the open deserts and narrow canyons of New Mexico and Utah. Growing up I had a photo of Antelope Canyon (ripped from a National Geographic calendar) pinned to the bulletin board in my elementary school bedroom.

Slot canyons are a rarity in the world narrow canyons formed as water rushes through rocks, they’re located almost exclusively in Australia and the Southwestern United States, with over 1,000 in Southern Utah alone. Open spaces in this region are vastly overwhelming in their scale and beauty, but slot canyons, some of the narrowest spots you’ll wedge yourself into willingly, will drop your jaw just as much. I never knew there were so many shades of orange, or understood how many patterns the wind could carve into a single stone. There’s a whole lot of nothing in most of Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, but you should see the way light hits that nothing. Step into a Southwestern desert and you’ll understand why Georgia O’Keeffe paintings are so barren yet so beautiful. The alleyways of Europe have infinite charm Japan’s Shibuya Crossing is a testament to the metropolises that man can build, but the American Southwest - there is not a place like it in the world.

Slot canyons around the world