Grand+Canyon

Hi, and welcome to the Grand Canyon. As some of you know, the Grand Canyon is 5,000 feet deep. And if you did know that, read on the find out some things that you maybe didn't know.

The Grand Canyon is 18 miles wide, and is NOT the deepest canyon in the world, Barranca de Cabre in Northern Mexico is deeper. In the Grand Canyon lives 75 species of mammals, 50 species of reptile, 25 species of fish, and 300 species of birds. Something else about the inside is that inside of the canyon it is 30 degrees higher than it is on the rim. The Grand Canyon is located mainly in Arizona, but it stretches into some other western states. This canyon is on a tilt, so the northern tip of the canyon is 1,200 feet higher than the southern tip. The Grand Canyon was formed 6 million years ago when the erosion of the Colorado River started. The Grand Canyon measures at 277 miles long and, as I said before, 5,000 feet deep.

The first Spanish people to see the Grand Canyon saw it under Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas in September of 1540. There were 13 soldiers led by Hopi guides to the Seven Cities of Cibola. The next person to see the Grand Canyon was probably James Ohio Pattie and a group of American trappers.

A rail line was put in to a large city, Flagstaff, to the Grand Canyon in 1882. Stage coaches used to bring tourists from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon. That took eleven hours to complete the journey. So, when the rail line was put in, tourism increased greatly when it was completed in 1901.

New hiking trails, along old Indian trails were also established in this time. By the early 1990's, 20,000 people went into the canyon by mule, 800,000 by hiking, 22,000 made their way by raft, and another 700,000 people went by airplanes and helicopter.

So, I hope everyone learned something new!



Sources [|Grand Canyon] [|Grand Canyon History and Activities] [|Picture]