In the north-west of Arizona state there is one of the most intriguing and unique corners of the world found – the Grand Canyon National Park, which occupies the territory of about 5 thousand square meters. The park was founded in 1908 with the aim of preserving a unique natural “formation” – the Colorado river Channel. This tremendous and most grand gorge in the world is about 350 km long, its depth reaches up to 1900 metres. The canyon’s width varies from 6 to 20 km.
The canyon had been taking its form for approximately 10 million years: the valley of the Colorado river was rising and little by little water was running into the plateau. Now the most ancient rocks can be seen in the bottom of the gorge. Reddish-brown waters of the Colorado river (translated as “Red” from Spanish) whirl along the gorge at a speed of 20 km per hour. It rolls huge boulders and pebble into the sea, which make the river absolutely opaque.
The huge gorge area looks not only like a long and narrow collapse in the ground. It is filled with disorderly situated rocks having the most odd forms. Mudslides, scours and wind erosions created giant pagodas, pyramids and towers inside the canyon that add to the beauty and grandeur of this sight. Some of them even have their own names: Vishnu temple, Wodan’s throne…
Climate on the plateau differs from that in the bottom of the canyon. – whereas the temperature above is about 15 degrees centigrade, below, among the red-hot stones it rises as high as forty degrees.
The Canyon’s nature is also worth mentioning. In its bottom you will find a typical Mexican landscape with various nopals, agaves and yuccas, but while rising higher you will come across oak trees, birches, willows and even higher, there is the pine-tress and junipers area found. The reach fauna of this territory consists of about 100 bird and 60 mammal species, including the rare ones.
In the beginning of the 60-s (20th century) the canyon faced a huge danger as federal power engineering commission wanted to build a cascade of reservoirs here that would inundate a part of the canyon. Luckily, the plan did not get the go-ahead.
Nowadays the Grand Canyon is one of the most popular travel destinations in the USA. Its immense scale and intricate rocks annually attract more than 2 million people to the park. The most foolhardy ones go kayaking over the Colorado river, the most trained ones love climbing down the canyon, whereas the larger part of tourists prefer traveling on mule-back. The other way is to survey the gorge from a helicopter. But none of these will give you a complete picture of what the canyon is – probably the only way to find it out is to try all of them.
Dozens of times you will pass the canyon, and every time it will be different – the angle of the sun rays, fantastical shadows and sultry gauze will be changing its looks again and again. Lots of side gorges join the canyon – and those are no less picturesque, twined with wild vine and adorned with waterfalls and rivers full of rapids.
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