Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon offers incredible scenery and amazing history to those who visit its rim.

While it is not the deepest canyon in the world is be by far the most rich in both vista and history. The amazing play of color on the rocks will keep you reaching for the camera again and again.

To geologists it is spectacular because of the ancient rocks that are so well preserved and so fully exposed in the walls of the Canyon, which offer a unique flash of show and tell about the history of the continent of North America.

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is also one of the largest examples of true erosion that exists in the world.

Until the advent of the civil war, there was very little known about the canyon and it was in fact virtually unknown and certainly unmapped.

Major John Powell changed all that in one trip.

The Major was a veteran of the war, and had a real desire for adventure, loved science and had, as a result of the war, only one arm.

He chose nine companions who would go with him and with only four very small boats made of wood; they traversed the Colorado River, through the canyon. Only about half of the men returned from the trip.

This group was the first to make the journey through the canyon on the Colorado.

The Canyon achieved Federal protection in 1893, when it was termed a Forest Preserve, and again later as a national monument, but not until 1919 did it become a national park.
Today the Canyon Park takes in over 5 million tourists every year.

When it began as a national park in 1919, the number was about 45,000.

Find out more about the Grand Canyon over at Wikipedia »