Grand Canyon is certainly one of the major attraction points of the United States of America. It draws millions of tourists each year.
Apart from its stunning natural beauty, there is a lot that Grand Canyon hides.
Today in our Grand Canyon facts article, let us learn some fascinating facts about Grand Canyon which may be extremely helpful for your school project. Without further ado, let us begin…
Grand Canyon Facts 1-9
1. Grand Canyon is situated in Arizona, United States of America. It was carved by River Colorado. John Powell was the first one to call this place as Grand Canyon. The first expedition to Grand Canyon was led by him.
2. It is 446 kilometers or 277 miles long. It is 29 kilometers or 18 miles wide. It has a depth of 1,857 meters or 6,093 feet.
3. It is present within many national parks, reservations, etc. like Grand Canyon National Park, Kaibab National Forest, Hualapai Indian Reservation, Navajo Nation, Havasupai Indian Reservation, and Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument.
4. It took 3 to 6 million years to form! Erosion changes the contours of the Grand Canyon to this day.
5. River Colorado flows from west to east. The river is 300 feet wide and 100 feet deep. It has an average speed of four miles an hour.
6. Grand Canyon National Park is bigger than Rhode Island state. The national park is 1,904 square miles and Rhode Island is 1,212 square miles.
7. Hopi tribe considers that the Grand Canyon is the gateway to afterlife. They believe that after death, souls pass through a place called ‘a place of emergence’ which is upstream from the confluence of Little Colorado and Colorado rivers. This confluence is present in the Grand Canyon.
8. From the lowest point of the Canyon to the rim of it, you can experience a temperature change of over 25 degrees Celsius. The gorge’s deep parts are unbearably hot during summers and the North Rim runs below freezing point during winters. Temperatures can range from -23 to 43 degrees Celsius.
9. There are well over 1,000 caves in the Canyon. However, only 335 of them are recorded and only one is open for the public to see.
Grand Canyon Facts 10-18
10. There was a report from Arizona Gazette that archaeologists discovered remnants of Egyptian or Tibetan civilization in an underground tunnel in the Grand Canyon. However, Smithsonian thwarted off such reports.
11. Conspiracy theories are still doing the rounds regarding the discovery of some ancient civilization. Conspiracy theorists assume that government hid the information from Americans and the world.
12. The tourists used to take the photographs of the Canyon, but since smartphones weren’t available then, they couldn’t take a pic of themselves with a part of canyon. Kolb brothers took this great opportunity and made fortune for themselves.
13. They used to take a pic of the tourist before departing on mules and would sell the photos to the tourists once they return from the journey.
14. Grand Canyon is undoubtedly famous all over the world but it is not the deepest. The deepest canyon in the world is Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon. It is present in Tibet.
15. There are other canyons like Kali Gandaki Gorge in Nepal, Cotahuasi Canyon in Peru which are deeper and longer than Grand Canyon present in America.
16. There are around 1,700 species of plants, 250 species of birds, 70 species of mammals, 25 species of snakes, and 5 species of amphibians in the Grand Canyon.
17. Guess which one is the most dangerous animal (in terms of biting humans the most)? Yes, there are animals like Gila monsters, bighorn sheep, etc. but the most dangerous is the rock squirrel. Most of the visitors or tourists are bitten by this cute animal.
18. If you want to travel from North Rim to South Rim, you have travel for four to five hours and cover a distance of 200 miles or 320 kilometers! However, the North and South Rim are just 10 miles apart!
Grand Canyon Facts 19-27
19. Earlier, people thought that Grand Canyon was some 6 million years old but recent studies proved the previous studies wrong.
As per the data of recent researches, the process of the formation of Grand Canyon started around 70 million years ago. Nonetheless, no one knows the age of the Grand Canyon for sure.
20. Since the canyon is pretty old, it is home to fossils of many extant and extinct animals. There are fossils of even marine animals that date back to around 1.2 billion years ago! Most of the fossils in this canyon are of dinosaurs.
21. Havsupai Indian Reservation is a village that is present in the canyon. It is one of the remotest communities in continental USA. The village has a population of 208.
22. The canyon in the United States of America displays something called the Great Unconformity. 250-million-year-old rock layer is present against a layer of rocks which is 1.2 billion years old.
23. What happened to the rock layers that formed between these timelines is a question that no one could answer till date.
24. There are six rattlesnake species in the Grand Canyon. One of them is Grand Canyon Pink Rattlesnake. It is found only in Grand Canyon.
25. The snake has pink color so as it can blend with the surroundings.
26. It may be hard to believe but there are more people who walked on the moon than the people who completed length-wise hike through the canyon!
27. With South Rim at 7,000 feet or 2,133 meters above sea level, it is one of the few areas in the United States of America to have the cleanest air.
Grand Canyon Facts 28-36
28. Grand Canyon is the reason for the existence of Federal Aviation Administration. In 1950s, airplanes took detours over the national park to give tourists a look of the park. In 1956, two planes collided. Not a single person survived. This led the government to form FAA.
29. The Grand Canyon is so huge that there are multiple ecosystems.
30. The mules seen in Grand Canyon come from Missouri and Tennessee.
31. Near the Grandview Point, there existed the first ever post office in Grand Canyon. Postmaster was Tolfree.
32. 5.9 million people visit the Grand Canyon National Park every year. When the park was started in 1919, only 44,173 people visited it.
33. Hualapai tribe built something called ‘The Skywalk’. It is a horse-shoe shaped structure which allows people to view the Grand Canyon in nearly its entirety.
34. The Grand Canyon National Park is a World Heritage Site. You can buy a souvenir but you cannot take it with you. You need to leave them where you found them so that others can enjoy too.
35. President Roosevelt visited Grand Canyon in 1903. In 1908, he made the canyon a national monument. He rightly said, “Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it”.
36. There are seven endangered species of animals that are endemic to the Grand Canyon. Some of the species are California condor, razorback sucker, humpback chub, etc.
Grand Canyon Facts 37-45
37. Natural fires help retain the stability of the ecosystem.
38. When the first Jaws movie was released, the visitors to Grand Canyon increased by 40%.
39. The largest hotel suite in this world is in Grand Canyon’s cavern. The oldest, darkest, quietest, deepest motel in the world is Grand Canyon Cavern and Inn. You need to shell out $700 per one night.
40. If you dump all humans inside the Grand Canyon, there still would be some space left!
41. Grand Canyon is famous not only for sightseeing but also for rafting, camping, skydiving, etc.
42. From 1880s to 2015, there were around 770 deaths that took place in Grand Canyon.
43. It is one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
44. Allyn Cureton was the fastest runner from rim to rim. He achieved this in 1981. After 30 years, Jared Scott broke the record by 36 seconds. He ran a distance of 20.6 miles for 3 hours, six minutes, and 10 seconds.
45. The canyon is deep and shallow at numerous points. This influences temperature and rainfall to such an extent that you can find driest and hottest location of Grand Canyon is just 8 miles away from the wettest location of it!
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