Grand Canyon

A steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and over a mile deep at 6,093 feet. Nearly two billion years of the Earth’s geological history stand exposed in its walls, laid bare as the river and its tributaries cut their channels layer by layer while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted beneath them. The canyon and its rim are shared between Grand Canyon National Park, the Kaibab National Forest, Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, the Hualapai Indian Reservation, the Havasupai Indian Reservation and the Navajo Nation. Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of preserving it and visited on numerous occasions.