Magnificent Canyons Carved Over Millions of Years

Photographer Christopher Eaton has taken some beautiful and otherworldly shots of the most-visited and most-photographed slot canyons in the American Southwest, Antelope Canyon. Located near Page, Arizona, these deep and narrow canyons were carved over millions of years by the wear of water rushing through the rock, often by flash floods.

"Though these slot canyons are carved into many different geological layers of sandstone and limestone, it is the Navajo Sandstone, formed from the petrified sand dunes of a large Jurassic desert similar to the Sahara Desert of today, that often become the richest canvas for the flash floods to carve their masterpieces through," says Eaton. "These canyons become otherworldly sculptures of stone that slowly evolve over time."








How majestic does it look when the sun shines deep into the canyon? It's both a rare sight and a photographer's dream. "Deep in the lower slot of Canyon X, the sun only penetrates to the canyon floor for an exceptionally brief period around the Summer Solstice," says Eaton. "A beam of light appears and disappears several time as the sun moves across the sky. Its last hurray can be seen in a distant room through a low arch in the canyon's wall."

Christopher Eaton 500px and website