Brief introduction of Colorado grand canyon landscape

1. cylon national park: turn from 15 to highway 9, and you will arrive at cylon national park. The boulders, cliffs and red clay mountain bags here are all worth shooting.

2.Braez National Park: Starting from Cylon National Park, turn to Highway 89, and then turn east to Highway 12, which is Braez National Park. The most famous here is the red clay Tallinn, which stands in the deep valley like bamboo shoots. You should stay for a long time and shoot beautiful rocks in the morning and evening light.

3. arches national park: Cross the Green River and turn to Highway 70. There are many huge arched rocks in the park. American cross-country car and motorcycle races are often held here. Hotels here are often full during the tourist season, so tourists should be prepared in advance.

4. Memorial Valley: From 19 1 to the south, there is an Indian reserve, also known as "Mexican straw hat scenic spot". From here to the entrance of 163 expressway, there is a straight avenue, and the west side of the road is a huge stone like a monument, so it is called "Memorial Valley". The film Forrest Gump was shot here, and many black and white masterpieces by famous photographers Ansel and Adams also came from here.

5. Lake Powell: From the 160 expressway to the west is Lake Powell. If you have time to go deep into the lake, you will find beautiful scenery.

6. Grand Canyon National Park: The northern edge is at the southern end of Highway 89, which is snowy in winter. This is the best place to shoot snow scenes, and the southern edge is a tourist attraction. In addition, there are several small parks along Highway 24, which can be decided according to the time. [Edit this paragraph] The Grand Canyon: the largest and most spectacular erosion landform in the world.

The Grand Canyon is about 330 kilometers long and its width ranges from 6 kilometers to dozens of kilometers. The deepest point can reach 1.824 meters, nearly 2 kilometers. The elevation of the valley river is less than 1000 meters, while the highest elevation of the valley bank can reach more than 3000 meters.

For hundreds of millions of years, the rushing Colorado River has cut this amazing miracle from the Kaibabu Plateau. No matter on the south bank or the north bank, you can clearly see a big crack on the plateau as flat as a table, which is the mark carved by the Colorado River on this vast land.

It is not the deepest canyon in the world, but it is famous for its huge scale and variety. It is eye-catching and the most important reason why it is included in the World Natural Heritage List. It also lies in its geological significance: well-preserved, completely exposed rock layers record almost all the geological history of the early North American continent. Paleozoic rocks 5.5-2.5 million years ago were recorded here, and the rocks after that were either not deposited or weathered.

The formation of the canyon is much later than its rocks (about 50,000-60,000 years ago), and it is also much more complicated, mainly due to the erosion of the Koch River, and the erosion of water such as rainfall and melting of ice and snow is almost equally important. The peculiar shape is mainly due to the different speed of water scouring on rocks with different structures. The rich color of the canyon is caused by a small amount of various minerals, and the iron-rich rocks are red or reddish brown.

Before the American Civil War, the Grand Canyon was little known. 1869, JohnWesleyPowell, a civil war veteran who loves science and exploration, went rafting for the first time. Animal husbandry began to develop in the Grand Canyon from 1880. By 1890, it was still an alpine grassland, with 654.38+10,000 cows and 250,000 sheep grazing here. However, when 1906 Grand Canyon Nature Reserve was established, most ranchers were forced to change careers. Because of overgrazing, the semi-arid grassland with fragile ecological environment has become bushes and deserts, and animal husbandry is unsustainable and gradually occupies a dominant position. At 190 1, the railway was built to the south bank, which made it develop rapidly. 19 19 became a national park (National Park Service was established in 19 16).

Rock arches national park

It is close to the town of Moab on the plateau of Rock Arch Park.

Turn uphill after entering the door, and the first group of strange rocks rushed to the front of the car, followed by a large group! They are the same color weathered by red rocks, and they are complete. Naked red arouses visual impact, like castles, behemoths, Ashima girls, churches and sails. This park is named after the concentration of natural stone arches. There are more than 2,000 stone arches with a span of more than 1 m in the park, and grotesque stone pillars and pier communities are scattered everywhere. The expressway connects several scenic spots together, and the dense area bends a scene, which is dizzying.

Walking by the huge rock arch, walking through the dry trees and listening to the wind on a cool day has a real sense of sureness. The window area is where large-scale rock archways are concentrated, and several famous archways often appear on postcards. Among them, Double Arch is composed of two beautiful arches, which look like a chain from the front, elegant and generous. Tourists are ants moving below, which shows how high it is! DelicateArch, a few miles away, is famous for its exquisite slopes in Oedolgae, which makes up the images on Utah license plates. Walk a mile to see the scenic arch, which is one of the largest rock arches in the world. It flies over 100 meter and is 30 to 40 meters high. The top is only a few feet thin and may collapse at any time. The message reads: "You have witnessed the decline of a rock arch. Next time you visit it, it may not exist." Looking up, I don't think it's an exaggeration at all. The life of the rock arch begins with the potholes caused by wind, frost, rain and snow on the mountain, then penetrates into holes, expands, and finally collapses into dust. The new rock arch is born, the old one dies, and time flows in front of us.

Vivid and interesting knowledge of popular science is a major feature of natural scenic spots in North America, and Rock Arch Park is no exception. Some signs let tourists face a certain landscape and draw boldly, saying that it used to be a mountain, but later it became a huge rock arch, and Mother Nature razed it to the ground. The story is illustrated by a schematic diagram, with dotted lines and solid lines depicting hundreds of millions of years of history, and the landform in front of us really supports the story. This mountain is so thick that it is eroded layer by layer!

Rock Arch Park covers an area of only over 200 square kilometers and has always been called familypark, which means convenient transportation, sightseeing and suitable for family trips. The park attaches great importance to the maintenance of natural ecology, and does not build any commercial facilities, even food. On the vast Gobi, there is a little wormwood leaf, which is also the heart of the park. Hollywood once came to borrow a treasure house, saying that 500 horses were put into filming the battle between Indians and federal cavalry, and the park collapsed back: "No way". In fact, as we all know, the national park system is short of money, but the stubborn park director still said: "It is impossible to imagine letting them let 500 horses in!" This kind of public integrity makes people look at Americans with new eyes.

Indian Heritage Park

Geologists call the Colorado Plateau a "semi-desert". Mostly wilderness and bare terraces and canyons. Come to think of it, it seems that no one will settle down.

In fact, human beings have lived here for at least 3000 years. The important cultural feature of the four corners is the cliff remains left by Indians. For this reason, many parks have been established, such as Mesa Verde Park in Zhou Ke, which is the most famous Indian Heritage Park.

Cliff House built houses in big caves under cliffs, ranging from a few to hundreds. A hole is a village. Scholars use the method of calculating the tree rings of the ruins to calculate the age. It is found that the leaves of these former residences were quite prosperous after13rd century, but they suddenly went to the cliff in the years and decades before 1300. There are all kinds of speculations, but it is difficult to explain why these widely distributed cliff houses were abandoned at the same time. In some sites, there are still food in storage tanks and unfinished work on the ground, which indicates that the owner intends to come back when he leaves. Anthropologists now mostly agree with this statement: American Indians crossed the Alaska Continental Bridge from Siberia to America tens of thousands of years ago and developed into many nationalities. Indians in Central America are good at farming, while Indians in the north are good at fishing and hunting. Today, many daily foods are first planted by Indians, such as corn, potatoes, carrots and tomatoes. Interestingly, there are no horses, cows and sheep in America. These livestock were brought by Spanish colonists. Today, the riding style in India is like riding for 30 thousand years.

On the way from 2 1 1 highway to needle forest, there is a "newspaper rock" in a ravine, which is full of Indian rock paintings, animals and other grotesque figures. Experts say these works are thousands of years old, while the latest works are only a few hundred years old. I wonder how many stories have happened. An old man living in the four corners told her grandson, "A cloud covers everything. When the clouds disperse, people go to the building and don't know where to go. " Hopi people in Arizona are considered to be descendants of cliff people. They say the souls of the early cliff dwellers still live in this place. Tribes also come to worship their ancestors every year. Such a land has its history, wandering soul and spirit.

The most famous one here is the Memorial Valley, which is located at the junction of Utah and Arizona and is the park of the Naviho tribe. The vast Gobi is littered with terraces, columns and various shapes. From a distance, it looks like a bonsai placed on the table. If you look closely, you can see that all the behemoths are huge, and the most exciting part must be led by a local guide to enter. The two caves "Eye of the Sun" and "Ear of the Wind" make people stunned by the names. When they were included in the camera and pressed the shutter, they also realized the sacredness that Indians respected. The sky is deep blue, and the wind is blowing golden quicksand, making a low whine. This place used to be very secluded. Like most reservations, it was a backwater designated by white people for Indians. From 65438 to the early 1960s, a white man came here to live, take photos and do business. As a result, this place has become the most popular place in the world. The advertisement of Marlboro cigarettes is simply a tourist advertisement here, and many movies are shot here, such as the sci-fi absurd movie Wild West starring will smith in 1999.

Bryce Park: God's Stairs

From the Grand Canyon to Bryce Canyon National Park, the plateau has climbed five steps, named chocolate cliff, Zhu cliff, white cliff, gray cliff and pink cliff in turn. They rise layer by layer, revealing 3 billion years of colored sediments.

The Koch River and its tributaries dig up the earth in the game, take out the oldest secrets and show them in plenty of sunshine. This area is called the GrandStaircase, which is also known as geological museum.

Walk horizontally between the first and second floors of the grand staircase, slow down, leisurely go west, then go north and bypass Bryce Canyon National Park from behind. With the elevation of the terrain, the air gradually cooled, and the scenery of Xiaoqiao pastoral poets also appeared.

Bryson is the smallest of the five national parks in Yonan. It is characterized by a large stone forest on the side of the mountain. For example, it is God's parade ground. This platform is the top layer of the big ladder, which is the pink cliff. The edge of the platform has been eroded into a pink stone forest, which is very spectacular from the top of the cliff. Clusters of star clusters vary in shape, stretching for one or two miles wide and more than 20 miles long.

Bryce has cool air and dense forests. The campsite in the park is very lively. After setting up colorful tents, people will walk around the observation deck or visit the Stone Forest.

Garden of Evil

"Garden" is a large area, like the magical realm in western fairy tales, with porches, wall columns and scattered piers, waiting patiently for someone to arrive. Groups of puppet-like stones stand on the smooth lines of the rock base, which are playful and simple and lovely. It is hard to believe that these stones are naturally weathered because they are almost the same as the surrounding landforms. It seems that a mysterious hand was playing with them just now. It's so quiet, you can hear clouds in the air and shadows floating on the ground. When several people are separated, they can't see each other.

At present, not many people know this magnificent scenic spot.

Canyon scenic spot

The southern edge is the best place to watch the sunrise. Clouds are dense and mysterious. There are many special tourist routes to visit the Grand Canyon.

Visitors can choose the right one according to their own plans. Cast on the Grand Canyon is a series of swaying light and shadow.

Yawapa YavapaiPoint is located on the east side of Grand Canyon Park, which is the highest point to watch the sunrise. There is also a three-dimensional model of the Grand Canyon next to the Yawapabote Pavilion, which can clearly understand the whole picture of the Grand Canyon.

Mohaf MohavePoint is a good place to watch the sunset. From here, you can clearly see the Colorado River flowing at the bottom of the canyon.

YakiPoint in Aceh is an important landscape of the Grand Canyon. You can see tourists and solidified lava on the cliff.

This is indeed a magnificent sight. In the morning, I wake up with the winding Colorado River. I can hear the wind echoing in the valley and the gurgling water playing together. A quiet and fresh picture is slowly unfolding around you. ...

Lake Mead and Lake Powell

The reservoir formed by Hoover High Dam was built in 1935 and named Meade, which is located at the western end of the Grand Canyon. The Glen Canyon Dam, built in 1963, formed Lake Powell, which became a new scenic spot in the east of the Grand Canyon. Between the east and west dams, there is the most wonderful main body of the Grand Canyon.

Lake Powell was named in memory of the first pioneer who drifted the river and suggested developing water conservancy. Its area is more than twice that of Lake Mead, with all kinds of red sandstone, stone arches, canyons and blue waves. Its scenery is far better than Lake Mead, and it has become a major national tourist attraction in the southwestern United States.

Cross-strait scenery

Americans think the scenery on the north bank of the Grand Canyon is better, because its altitude is higher than that on the south bank (nearly 3000 meters), with scattered scenic spots and longer distance. Tourists only have 1/4 on the south bank. It is open from May to1mid-October every year. There are no buses and coaches, so you can only drive there by yourself, while the south bank is open all year round.

The northern shore passes through the Ketab National Forest, which is completely the forest and grassland scenery of northern Europe, with abundant rainfall, with an average annual rainfall of about 660 mm. There is also a forest on the south bank, but the average annual rainfall here is only 400 mm, so it is not the shady fir on the north bank, but the drought-tolerant pine and cypress, which are short and prostrate on the dry stone mountain. No matter on the north and south banks, the field of vision is extremely wide, and only the ups and downs, fractures and cuts of the earth can be seen. Being condescending often leads to the illusion of overlooking the sand table, which is easy to lead to the lofty sentiments of ruling the world.

Standing on the shore, you can hardly see the trickle of the Colorado River deep in the canyon. It is hard to imagine that this tiny yellow water is the main creator of this grand canyon. Many dams in the upper reaches reduce the inflow of water, but dripping water can still wear through the stone, which shows the age of this river. The rock bedding of the gorge wall is complete and clear, which is a living specimen for studying the formation of the crust and a vivid classroom for understanding geological knowledge and even the earth. Americans make full use of this advantage, spreading scientific knowledge in the explanation boards and tourist brochures introducing scenic spots in Grand Canyon Park, and drawing the rock stratum profile that tourists see, marking the names, characteristics and formation ages of different rock strata one by one, and why these specific shapes and colors appear. However, there are few explanation boards with shadow graphics for scenic spots that win with strange rocks in China, and the introduction of tour guides is mostly limited to what the appearance looks like or myths and legends. If we can dig deep into the relevant natural science knowledge like the United States and let tourists broaden their knowledge everywhere, it will be full of fun. The Grand Canyon attracts 5 million tourists every year, and many American tourists are repeat customers.

Many national parks, resorts and forests in the Colorado River valley attach great importance to the educational function. Another common feature of them is that the fares are cheap. For non-commercial vehicles, that is, tourists drive themselves into the park, tickets are charged by car, regardless of size, which is 20 dollars (of course, ordinary people can't use carts). Tickets for pedestrians and cyclists are $65,438+00 per person, including the bus fare in the park, which is valid for 7 days, no matter how many times you go in and out. The authorities do not encourage tourists to live in parks. Tourists live outside the valley and can fully visit. In Jiuzhaigou scenic spot in China, for environmental reasons, hotels are also built outside ditches, but tickets can only be used once, which objectively forces people to live in ditches because they can't play all day. Jiuzhaigou ticket 102 yuan, the park bus fare 88 yuan, 190 yuan, equivalent to 23 dollars per person. Tickets for hiking and cycling in the Grand Canyon are half cheaper than those in Jiuzhaigou. If a group of four or five people drives around the Grand Canyon, it costs four or five yuan per person.

The Colorado River, which is more than 300 kilometers from Hoover High Dam on Lake Mead to Page Ferry, is cut off by the Grand Canyon, making it difficult to cross the natural moat. There is a path from the shore to the valley bottom, which is 1 1 km long, and it takes two days to walk. The valley near Page has been reduced to only 20m, and the river bank has also been reduced to only 65,438+100m, which is the first place where you can bridge and wade. Now there are two small iron arch bridges side by side. Because the cliff north of Qiaoqiao is bright red and smooth as marble, it is named Marble Canyon. This is also the shortest way to cross the river on foot and by car.

Crossing the bridge to the south is Highway 89, which leads to the tourist area on the south bank of the Grand Canyon. It passes through the famous colorful desert along the route, as if the turbulent sea instantly solidified into a sea of stones. On the undulating sand dunes, the horizontal rock bedding is red, white, gray, yellow and black, just like a large modern painting, which draws its original English name, which is more appropriate. It is more like Gobi than a real desert. [Edit this paragraph] Hanging Glass Bridge The hanging transparent glass viewing covered bridge built in Colorado Grand Canyon National Park, USA, was officially opened to the public on March 20, and local Indian tribal leaders and some former astronauts became the first tourists received by this new viewing platform.

Enlightenment from entrepreneurs in China

This breathtaking cable-stayed covered bridge is built in a U shape at the bottom of Eagle Cliff at the southern edge of the Grand Canyon at an altitude of 1 200m, and the farthest distance from the rock wall is 21m. The covered bridge is about 3 meters wide and the bottom plate is transparent glass. Visitors can walk on it, overlooking the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River.

This idea, called "World Miracle of 2 1 century", was originally put forward by Jin Wu, a Chinese-American entrepreneur born in Shanghai.

Jin Wu said that when he visited the Grand Canyon at 1996, he was first inspired by the idea of building a suspended covered bridge on the Grand Canyon. He immediately cooperated with the Indian Walla tribe in the Grand Canyon to raise funds and cooperated with engineers in Las Vegas to design the scheme.

It can withstand 72 Boeing aircraft.

Building a cable-stayed covered bridge is a great challenge to engineering technology. In order to resist the strong wind with speed of160km/h, engineers drove 94 steel columns into the limestone wall as bridge piers, and went deep into the rock wall14m.

It is reported that 454 tons of steel beams were used in the construction of the suspension bridge. After completion, it can bear the weight of 72 Boeing aircraft, and it can also resist the earthquake with a magnitude of 8 on the Richter scale 80 kilometers away and the wind with a top speed of 160 kilometers. Under the action of humidity control system, the shaking of buildings can be minimized. According to the builder's estimate, it will attract 500 thousand tourists every year.

This observation deck is located on the reservation of Indian Huala tribe. Because this plan has a potential role in promoting the local economy, Indian tribes finally gave it approval, and they demanded that environmental factors must be considered in the construction process. Some members of the Hualapai tribe boarded the covered bridge for sightseeing on the 20th. The tribal leader jokingly said, "I can hear the sound of broken glass."

Former American astronaut buzz aldrin called the trip a "great first step". He said: "I feel great, which is not exactly the same as floating in the air." [Edit this paragraph] The problem facing the Grand Canyon: the water flow problem.

The Colorado River is blocked by dams in the upper and lower reaches of the Grand Canyon, which affects the normal water flow. Upstream is the Glen Canyon Dam, forming Lake Powell; Downstream is the Hoover Dam, which forms Lake Mead and mainly supplies water to Las Vegas in the desert. These dams not only restrict the activities of all kinds of fish and other creatures, but more importantly, they intercept all the major floods. Many landforms of the Grand Canyon were shaped by these floods in the past, but now the water flow is slow and less, and many landforms have been changed, which directly affects the ecological environment of the Grand Canyon. For example, many beaches at the bottom of the Grand Canyon are disappearing because of the lack of a lot of sediments brought by floods. In recent years, scientists have begun to carry out limited experimental flood discharge at the Glen Canyon Dam, which is of great help to restore the original landform of the Grand Canyon.