Grand Canyon National Park

Players:  Jenny, Jake & Jackson
Date of Visit:  May 2008

Website:  www.nps.gov/grca
Location:  Arizona
Entrance Fee:  $25 per car, good for 7 days at both the North Rim and the South Rim
Type of Trip:  Overnight as part of Western US road trip
Park Passport Stamps Available:  11 (!)

Trip Report:  To me, calling the magnificent area in Northern Arizona the “Grand Canyon” is a little bit like calling a cruise ship a “big boat;”  the words don’t really do it justice.  Neither do the pictures or anything I’m about to describe.  Really, you should just go see it yourself.

The Grand Canyon is immense, nearly 300 miles long, a mile deep and ten miles across the rim.  The Colorado River has carved the depth of the canyon, exposing some of the oldest rocks visible on the planet; wind and water have done the rest of the work to widen the canyon and form the various spires and formations in the area.  The canyon is so awe-inspiring that it moved President Theodore Roosevelt to remark, “In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it."

A view into the Grand Canyon