Last year I went to the Grand Canyon. The plan was to stay for several days, hike, and take pictures. Everything went according to plan.
Some impressive statistics about the Grand Canyon from Our National Parks, a book by Reader's Digest:
- To travel from end to end means a river journey of 277 twisting miles.
- The distance between walls varies from 18 miles to less than 1/2 mile.
- In the central section, the canyon averages a mile deep — 4,700 feet from the South Rim and 5,700 feet from the North Rim.
- If you were to walk from rim to rim, you would pass through at least 4 of the continent's 7 life zones, the equivalent of a trek from the Mexican desert to the Canadian woods.
- Along the walls of the Grand Canyon, some 2,000,000,000 years of the Earth's history have been laid bare by the driving, abrasive force of the Colorado River.
- The Colorado River carried an average of 400,000 tons of silt per day through the canyon. That's the same as 80,000 five-ton dump trucks!
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