Grand canyon

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon National Park, the Hualapai Tribal Nation, and the Havasupai Tribe. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of preservation of the Grand Canyon area, and visited it on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery. It is considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide and attains a depth of over a mile (6,000 feet or 1,800 meters).Nearly two billion years of the Earth’s geological history has been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted While the specific geologic processes and timing that formed the Grand Canyon are the subject of debate by geologists,recent evidence suggests the Colorado River established its course through the canyon at least 17 million years ago.

Grand Canyon National Park was named as an official national park in 1919, but the landmark had been well known to Americans for over thirty years prior. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt visited the site and said: “The Grand Canyon fills me with awe. It is beyond comparison—beyond description; absolutely unparalleled throughout the wide world... Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is Do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity and loveliness. You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see.”

Despite Roosevelt’s enthusiasm and his strong interest in preserving land for public use, the Grand Canyon was not immediately designated a national park.

The first bill to create Grand Canyon National Park was introduced in

The known history of the Grand Canyon area stretches back 10,500 years, when the first evidence of human presence in the area is found. Native Americans have inhabited the Grand Canyon and the area now covered

by Grand Canyon National Park for at least the last 4,000 of those years.

Ancestral Pueblo peoples, first as the Basketmaker culture and later as the more familiar Pueblo people, developed from the Desert Culture as they became less nomadic and more dependent on agriculture. A similar culture, the Cohonina, also lived in the canyon area.

Drought in the late 13th century likely caused both groups to move on. Other people followed, including the Paiute, Cerbat, and the Navajo, only to be later forced onto reservations by the United States Government.

In September 1540, under direction by conquistador Francisco Vรกsquez de Coronado to find the fabled Seven Cities of Gold, Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas led a party of Spanish soldiers with Hopi guides to the Grand Canyon.

More than 200 years passed before two Spanish priests became the second party of non-Native Americans to see the canyon. U.S. Army Major John Wesley Powell led the 1869 Powell Geographic Expedition through the canyon on the Colorado River. This and later study by geologists uncovered

There is a diverse population of life in the canyon, where over 1,500 plant, 500 types of animals are found.

The canyon offers a nearly undisturbed natural habitat through a range of elevations from desert to mountain forests on the rims.Around 450 Native Americans live in the canyon year-round in Supai, on the Havasupai Reservation. The Havasupai have lived in the canyon for hundreds of years. Traditionally they farmed the fertile soil in Cataract Canyon in the summer raising maize, squash, beans, and peaches. In the winter they hunted game on the rim for sustenance. With the diverse landscape, habitat and elevation change from the top of the Rims to the Canyon floor, there is a wide variety of wildlife animals in the Grand Canyon National Park. It is important to remember that no matter how adapted to humans the animals may be, they are wild animals and some are capable of biting and even attacking if provoked. When viewing wildlife, do not approach California Condor. The most interesting bird at the canyon is the very rare California Condor which was once nearly extinct. They are still on the endangered list. There are captive breeding programs that ultimately release Condors into controlled territories of which the Grand Canyon is one. As of March 2008, there were 297 condors known to be living, including 146 in the wild. The Condor has the largest wingspan of any bird in North America. The wingspan of an adult averages 9 feet. Essentially, the Condor is a vulture that some think is cute while other deem as ugly. It is black with white under wings and a bald head that ranges from yellow to red in color. If you are lucky enough see a Condor at the canyon, you will be quite impressed.

Bald Eagles. The Bald Eagle is the symbol of America and is a gorgeous animal that has a wingspan of about 6 feet. It has dark plumage, a white head and tail, and yellow beak. During winter, bald eagles frequently sit

Bighorn Sheep. Big Horn Sheep love rocky terrain and canyon walls. The are sure-footed animals and it is amazing how they can climb, walk and jump around sheer cliffs which is most often where you will find them. Read more about Arizona Big Horn Sheep.

Coyotes. You’re apt to see a coyote anywhere at the Grand Canyon whether at the top of the rims or inside the canyon. They look like lanky dogs and feed primarily on rodents and carrion. They’ve adapted to being around humans and will forage around campsites and garbage containers. Read more about Arizona Coyotes.

Cottontail Rabbits. You will often see Cottontails anywhere feeding on native grasses, berries and vegetation.

Their “cotton white” tails are the giveaway. They are always observant to the danger of bobcats and coyotes.

Each year, the Grand Canyon attracts 4 million visitors from dozens of nations who flock to the South Rim for unrivaled views of nature’s handiwork. Officials here worry over their close contact — and resulting injuries — with the elk.

Although no one has been killed, officials are stepping up precautions as summer comes to the Grand Canyon, bringing the year’s biggest influx of tourists. The animals are now a daily presence, feeding on the lush lawns outside the historic El Tovar Hotel.“We’ve had people injured, and as the near-misses accumulate, you think, ‘Wow, you’re lucky,’” said Martha Hahn, chief of science and resource management at the park. “But all it’s going to take is one person gored and thrown over the edge of the canyon. It’s something we take very seriously. We need to decrease this human-elk interaction in a progressive way, and fast.” The elk are stubborn and unpredictable, especially in the fall rutting season and in the spring, when mothers protect their newborns. Bulls can reach 800 pounds with 5-foot-long antler racks. In scores of run-ins with tourists, they’ve broken people’s bones and caused eye injuries.In 2006, a local resident broke his leg in three places when he was knocked over by a bull elk. In 2011, a concessionaire worker was slightly gored in the back by an elk near one of the hotels. A recent animal charge left tourists cowering behind a sign near the canyon’s precipice.

There are no studies on the number of elk, which have become so habituated to people that they roam the streets where many

It Is The Gulf Of Silence Widened In The Desert

Which Is Forever Inscribing In The Book Of The Earth

The reason that it looks the way does is due to the sequence in which the events that help to create it happened. We already know that there was once a very tall chain of mountains in the area that occupied the Grand Canyon.

These mountains were, over many millions of years, eventually eroded away to form a level plain. Fluctuations in climate then caused the oceans to move in over successive periods and each time a new rock layer was deposited.

The rock layers were deposited one on top of the other and sometimes there were long periods in between in which some of the upper layers were eroded away, sometimes completely.And now the Colorado River comes into play. The ancestral “Colorado River� came into being when the Rocky Mountains to the east of the Grand Canyon were formed, at sometime around 60-70 million years ago, as the primary western drainage for these mountains.

Over millions of years

he truth is that no one knows for sure though there are some pretty good guesses. The chances are that a number of processes combined to create the views that you see in todays Grand Canyon.

The most powerful force to have an impact on the Grand Canyon is erosion, primarily by water (and ice) and second by wind.

Other forces that contributed to the Canyon’s formation are the course of the Colorado River itself, vulcanism, continental drift and slight variations in the earths orbit which in turn causes variations in seasons and climate.

Water seems to have had the most impact basically because our planet has lots of it and it is always on the move. Many people cannot understand how water can have such a profound impact considering that the Canyon is basically located in a desert. This is one of the biggest reasons that water has such a big impact here. Because the soil in the Grand Canyon is baked by the sun it tends to become very hard and cannot absorb water when the rains to come. When it does rain the water tends to come