Hiking in southern Utah and northern Arizona in September of this year, I pinched off twigs of sage along the trail as I passed, crushing the leaves and blossoms with my fingers and cupping my hands to my face to inhale the scent, a scent I didn’t want to release. A few weeks later, the smell of sagebrush is only a sweet and pungent memory, but it’s one of the ways the West intoxicates me, drawing me back again and again. Slot canyons have perhaps an even more powerful pull, and that is evident in the photos here, some of my favorites from my recent travels.