3 Remarkable Reasons to Explore the Grand Canyon

It is bigger than Rhode Island, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, and the Colorado River spent millions of years digging it out one grain of sandstone at a time. Most people know the Grand Canyon from a single postcard vista. It rewards the ones who go deeper. The canyon runs 277 miles, averages 4,000 feet deep, drops to 6,000 feet at its lowest point, and spreads 18 miles across at its widest. Here are three reasons to put it at the top of your next trip.

A canyon geologists still argue about

Ask two geologists how old the Grand Canyon is and you may get two answers that are seventy million years apart. One camp puts the earliest carving at over 70 million years ago. The other holds firm at 5 to 6 million. Both are right. The canyon covers so much ground that its segments were cut at different times, by different rivers, under different conditions, then stitched together into the single gorge we see now.

The park itself covers 1.2 million acres, divided into four distinct sections: the South Rim, the North Rim, Grand Canyon East, and Grand Canyon West. Roughly 5.9 million people visit every year, a number topped only by the Great Smoky Mountains over in North Carolina. All of that depth and difference is exactly what shows up when the canyon is rendered in stacked birch on a 3D wood map of the Grand Canyon, where every layer of wood is a real contour of the terrain.

1. The hiking is the real thing

You can appreciate the Grand Canyon from the rim for an afternoon. You can also walk straight down into it. The trail to the canyon floor runs about nine and a half miles and drops more than 4,300 feet, which makes the climb back out the harder half of the day. Plan on five to nine hours for the return, and do it after a full night of sleep, not on the same day you came down.

The best windows are March through May and September through November, when temperatures sit in the range that makes a long walk a pleasure instead of a survival exercise. The canyon is friendly to the do-it-yourself hiker. Grab a trail map at the South Rim information center and pick your distance. Easier routes worth the time include:

• Shoshone Point
• South Kaibab Trail
• Cape Royal Trail
• Widforss Trail
• North Kaibab Trail

There is a route for every schedule, from a two-hour stroll to a full day on the trail. Pack breaks, snacks, and time to just stand and look. And if all-day hiking is not your idea of fun, the canyon also offers mule trips, rafting on the Colorado, and some of the darkest night skies in the country for stargazing.

2. Wildlife that earns a second look

The views pull your eyes across the canyon, but keep some attention on the trails and the sky. The caves, trees, and rock crevices are full of animals, and a few of them are rare enough to make the trip on their own.

California condor: the largest bird in North America, with a wingspan of nine and a half feet. The population nearly vanished, so a sighting here is a small conservation victory in the flesh.

Rocky Mountain elk: introduced to Arizona in the early 1900s, they have settled into the canyon as if they always belonged.

Ringtail: the state animal of Arizona, solitary and rarely seen. It sleeps through the day and hunts at night, using night vision most cameras would envy.

Bighorn sheep: watch the cliff faces for the rams, who spend their days bounding up terrain that would stop a human cold, then butting heads over it.

Abert's squirrel: gray fur, tufted ears, a fluffy tail, and a home high in the ponderosa pines.

Do not confuse that one with the rock squirrel, which has a reputation. This deceptively cute rodent is the most dangerous animal in the canyon, responsible for more visitor injuries than anything else out there. It will bite you for a snack, and, according to park rangers, sometimes just for pointing at it. Admire the wildlife, feed none of it.

3. The Colorado River did all of this

Every wall, spire, and switchback in the canyon exists because the Colorado River kept moving. Geologists still debate whether the river carved so deep because it was powerful or simply because it was patient. The honest answer is probably both.

Winding roughly 270 miles across the canyon floor, the Colorado reaches speeds around four miles per hour. Its temperature swings so hard through the year that the water is largely inhospitable, home to only eight fish species native to the canyon. That has not stopped anglers.

Fishing the Colorado

Fishing is a genuinely popular sport along the Grand Canyon stretch of the river. Plenty of fish pass through even if few settle in, threading the gauntlet of anglers from one end to the other. Trout are the headline catch, along with:

• bass
• catfish
• carp
• humpback chub

The full run of the river, every deep pocket and shallow shoreline pool, is exactly the kind of detail a wood chart captures. Birch is etched with the river bathymetry and the land topography, then layered to build the real shape of the canyon. If you have ever wondered how that gets made, we walk through the whole process in how 3D wood maps are made.

Take the canyon home

Walk the trails, watch the cliffs for bighorn, and stand at the edge while the Colorado keeps doing its slow work far below. When the trip is over, the memory stays sharp on the wall, carved to true depth and scale. That is the whole idea behind commemorating your travels with a wood map. Start with the Grand Canyon wood chart, or explore the rest of the West Coast charts and find the landscape you know by heart.