Facts about the Grand Canyon
- 09
Ninety percent of Grand Canyon visitors never venture below the rim, missing the dramatically different climate and wildlife found just thousands of feet down into the canyon's interior.
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Condors with wingspans up to 9.5 feet soar above the Grand Canyon, where a reintroduction program has increased the population from 27 birds in 1987 to over 500 today.
- 07
South Rim visitors can observe five distinct life zones within the Grand Canyon, ranging from desert scrub at the bottom to alpine forest at the 7,000-foot-high rim.
- 06
Temperatures at the Grand Canyon's rim average 30 degrees Fahrenheit colder than at the river level 5,000 feet below, creating dramatically different ecosystems within miles of each other.
- 05
Mule trains carry roughly 250,000 pounds of supplies annually down the Grand Canyon's steep trails to resupply the Phantom Ranch at river level.
- 04
Approximately 1.2 million visitors annually descend into the Grand Canyon, with roughly 30,000 hiking to the Colorado River's edge each year.
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The Colorado River carved through the Grand Canyon over approximately 6 million years, creating a mile-deep chasm through the Arizona plateau.
- 02
In 1869, John Wesley Powell led the first documented expedition through the Grand Canyon's 277-mile length in wooden boats over ten weeks.
- 01
Nearly two billion years of Earth's geological history are exposed in the Grand Canyon's rock layers, with the oldest rocks at the bottom dating back 1.84 billion years.