The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is one of the natural wonders of the world. It attracts nearly 4 million people each year. The Grand Canyon National Park encompassed 1,218,375 acres on the Colorado Plateau in northwestern Arizona. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and 5000 feet deep.

In the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River has cut through the accumulated layers of the earth's surface to reach what Norman MacLean dubbed "the basement of time." A billion years of history can be seen from the bedrock at the distant river's edge to fossilized sand dunes only a million years old at the rim. Some of the earth's oldest rock lies at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The rock is made up of sediments thousands of feed deep. About 300 million years after it formed, monumental geologic forces lifted the rock back up into a great range of mountains that may have been six miles high, or about the height of the Himalayas. Over time, the mountains eroded into a plain. About one billion years ago, that plain was raised into a second mountain range. These mountains were also worn away by millions of years of rain, wind and frost.During later ages, the entire region sank beneath an inland sea, with primitive shellfish fossilizing in sea bottoms that eventually hardened to shale. Eons later, the region rose again as a high plateau; the former sea bottom was now on top and the ancient rocks below. This is when the Colorado River went to work, first cutting into the upper layers about six million years ago. Carving inch by inch over the millennia, the river finally reached the oldest rocks nearly a mile below the surface.

Over 1,500 plant, 355 bird, 89 mammalian, 47 reptile, 9 amphibian, and 17 fish species are found in the park. Since the entire canyon has little soil there is very little vegetation is seen except on parts of the rims. The northern rim is partly forested with evergreens. In the depths of the valley very little grows except desert plants and Spanish bayonet.

If you have not yet visited the Grand Canyon, you need to add it to the top of your list of places to see. It is so beautiful with amazing views all around. It will leave you breathless.