The Facts
Length of the Park: 212 miles as the crow flies.
Width: Minimum at Marble Canyon, 600 yards
Average width, rim to rim: 10 miles
Maximum rim to rim: 18 miles
Value: Priceless
Average depth: 1 mile
Rim elevations
South rim: 7,000 feet
North rim: 8,100 feet
Lake Mead boundary: 1,200 feet
Associated Press writer Felicia Fonseca wrote this about the park: "Ninety years after it was established as the country's 17th national park, the Grand Canyon still invokes feelings of astonishment and wonder among the 4.5 million people who visit each year. Known for its immense size, beauty and rugged landscape, it has become an icon of the National Park System."
The Grand Canyon, as a national park, is ninety years old. The actual age of the gorge is anyone's guess.
The word that Susie and I kept repeating all the way out here as we came across New Mexico and Arizona was "vast." Everything out here is so vast, the canyon being no exception. It is to be seen and felt and experienced. It cannot be expressed in words and photos are only reminders of it, but fail to capture it.
While walking about the various lookout spots on the South Rim we could hear languages from the world over as we mingled with the canyon-gazers yesterday afternoon. Scandinavian tongues, Oriental languages, Hispanic, German and among others. For the most part, no matter language you spoke when you arrived, when you left you were speechless.
I thought this Dave Barry quote was fun... but did not know how to fit it seemleassly into my blog comments.
ReplyDelete“In fact, just about all the major natural attractions you find in the West- the Grand Canyon, the Badlands, the Goodlands, the Mediocrelands, the Rocky Mountains and Robert Redford- were caused by erosion.” ~ Dave Barry