Grand Canyon National Park’s Centennial Year

• Depth: 1 mile
• Width: up to 18
• Spans: 277 winding RIVER miles
• Oldest found artifacts: 12,000 years
• Age of canyon: 6 million or 70 million. Highly debatable. They can’t decide.

Happy Centennial Year to GCNP. Unless you’ve visited the Grand Canyon in your adult years, are you like me in that your only previous memory was in the 90s when our parents took those road trips, got out of the car for a picture, and then moved on with their lives? Before a couple years ago, I never camped there, never hiked there, never really felt like I saw it. It was an urban legend, but you forget how good it is when you get there and really see it for yourself while being brought to tears.

Legend has it, erosion made the GC, but I reckon God wanted to show off and created erosion so that we’d have an easier concept to grab. There’s layers on layers of different strata that make up this beast. They all have different weird names. Someone had a ball coming up with these and I guess it would be fun to memorize them all if you wanted. The canyon has a lot of history in regards to settlers and native pueblos. Before Spanish conquistadors arrived, a number of different Native American cultures lived in various regions of the canyon and nearby. American explorers came after and the first geologist showed up around 1858.

It blows my mind that the variance in elevation at the Grand Canyon is so vast that forested edges receive snowfall and the river below rarely fluctuates all-year long and stays fairly warm. The North Rim is closed for the winter and Southern is open year-round. Air quality is also said to be some of the cleanest in all of the US. The canyon has so many different environments and ecosystems that it would be like traveling from Mexico to Canada experiencing them all.

I love the GC although getting there is something else and takes you in and out of Utah and Arizona multiple times. As with any hike or exploration endeavor, safety is key. Check weather conditions, stay hydrated, don’t push yourself past your limits, and respect sovereign lands and reservations. The popular trek to Havasupai is always booked out and on February 1, you can try to reserve a spot, so plan ahead. April 20-28 is National Park Week and entrance is free so get out there and love on our beautiful parks. Glad to have seen this beauty with some good friends.

To purchase a print of a Grand Canyon image and support my photography, please venmo @andrea-david with the image and size you’d like.

• 4x6s are $15
• 8x10s are $25
• 11×17 are $35
• please contact me if you’d like a bigger image

Thanks for letting me use this platform as a way to celebrate the Earth, celebrate people and creation and continuously stand in awe of it. Contact me at [email protected] with any questions!