Sunday's Seven Wonders - Grand Canyon

I know I said I was moving on to the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, but after researching, I realized there were several different classifications for the moder world. Instead, I've decided to tackle the Seven Wonders of the Natural World. With winter almost over and spring on the horizon, I thought this would be the best way to go.

Without further ado, I present, the Seven Wonders of the Natural World ...


Number One ...

THE GRAND CANYON ...

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided gorge carved by the Colorado River in the US state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park — one of the first national parks in the United States. 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. The Grand Canyon overwhelms our senses through its immense size - 277 river miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and a mile deep.

Geologically speaking, the Grand Canyon is very young. Although the oldest rocks at the canyon bottom are close to 2000 million years old, the Canyon itself - formed by erosion - is only five or six million years old.

Grand Canyon is not the deepest canyon in the world (Barranca del Cobre in Mexico and Hell's Canyon in Idaho are deeper), but is known throughout the world for its overwhelming size and its intricate and colorful landscape. It is significant because of the thick sequence of beautifully perserved ancient rocks exposed in the walls of the canyon. These rock layers record much of the early geological history of the North American continent.

Although first given Federal protection in 1893 as a Forest Reserve, Grand Canyon did not achieve National Park status until 1919, three years after the creation of the National Park Service. Today Grand Canyon National Park receives close to five million visitors each year. Grand Canyon became a national park in order to give it the best protection we as a nation have to offer. The Grand Canyon National Park celebrated its 90th anniversary on February 26, 2009.

I have never been to the Grand Canyon, but it is on my bucket list.

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