Canyon / Gorge

A deep, narrow cut with steep walls, produced by a watercourse eroding downward faster than its walls erode outward. Diagnostic feature is the ratio of depth to width — walls close and high relative to the narrow strip of sky or water visible between them — distinguishing it from a broader river valley.

Bare Rock / Non-Vegetated

Deep, narrow, steep-walled cut, walls close relative to depth, bare rock dominant.

Continental

Setting: Inland

Candidate: The Grand Canyon, Arizona — unverified, for your own research and confirmation before use.

Scrubland / Chaparral

Canyon walls with sparse dry scrub clinging to ledges and lower slopes.

Arid

Setting: Inland

Candidate: Zion Canyon, Utah — unverified, for your own research and confirmation before use.

Hot Desert

A canyon cut through genuinely arid terrain, walls bare and sun-scoured, no scrub cover at all.

Arid

Setting: Inland

Candidate: Antelope Canyon, Arizona — unverified, for your own research and confirmation before use.

Tropical Rainforest

A steep-walled river gorge under dense tropical canopy, walls often obscured by vegetation.

Tropical

Setting: Inland

Candidate: The Iguazu River gorge, Argentina/Brazil border — unverified, for your own research and confirmation before use.

Temperate Deciduous Forest

A river gorge under broadleaf forest cover, canopy following the cut down toward the water.

Temperate

Setting: Inland

Candidate: Cloudland Canyon, Lookout Mountain, Georgia/Tennessee border — unverified, for your own research and confirmation before use.

~1,000 ft deep gorge cut by Sitton Gulch Creek through layered sandstone and shale; hardwood canopy (oak, turning red/gold in autumn) with hemlock in the cooler gorge-bottom microclimate near the two waterfalls (Cherokee Falls, Hemlock Falls). Same bones as a bare desert canyon, just green — deliberately chosen over Cheddar Gorge as the single candidate for this row rather than adding a second climate/setting variant.