Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Tourist attractions - Introduction to Grand Canyon Attractions, Grand Canyon Tourism
Introduction to Grand Canyon Attractions, Grand Canyon Tourism
The Grand Canyon is located in the northwest of Arizona and the southwest of the Colorado Plateau. The Grand Canyon has a total length of 446 kilometers, an average width of 16 kilometers, a deepest point of 2,133 meters, an average depth of more than 1,500 meters, and a total area of ??2,724 square kilometers.
In 1919, President Wilson designated the Grand Canyon area as the "Grand Canyon National Park".
The Grand Canyon is a masterpiece of the Colorado River. This river originates from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, flows through Utah, Arizona, and enters the sea from the Gulf of California in California, with a total length of 2,320 kilometers. "Colorado" means "Red River" in Spanish. This is because the river carries a lot of silt and the water often appears red, hence the name. In the Grand Canyon, there are 75 species of mammals and 50 species of amphibians and reptiles. Animals, 25 species of fish and over 300 species of birds survive. The entire national park is home to many animals.
Main Attractions
For hundreds of millions of years, the roaring Colorado River has cut this shocking miracle from the KAIBAB Plateau. Whether you are on the south bank or the north bank, looking from a high distance, you can clearly see a big crack on the tabletop plateau, which is the imprint of the Colorado River on this wild land. It’s not the deepest canyon in the world, but it’s notable for its sheer size and richness. It attracts the world's attention and is the most important reason why it is listed as a World Natural Heritage. It also lies in its geological significance: the well-preserved and fully exposed rock formations record almost the entire geological history of the early North American continent. It records Paleozoic rocks from 5.5 to 2.5 million years ago. After that, they were either not deposited or have weathered.
The canyon was formed much later than its rocks (about 50,000-60,000 years ago) and is much more complicated. It is mainly caused by the erosion of the Co River, and the erosion effects of rainfall, ice and snow melt are almost the same. important. The peculiar shape is mainly due to the different speeds of erosion on rocks with different textures. The rich colors of the canyon are caused by the small amounts of various minerals contained. Rocks rich in iron are red or reddish brown.
Until the American Civil War, the Grand Canyon was little known.
In 1869, John Wesley Powell, a Civil War veteran who loved science and exploration, went rafting for the first time.
Livestock farming began to develop in the Grand Canyon area in 1880. By 1890, it was still an alpine grassland, with 150,000 cattle and 250,000 sheep grazing here.
But by the time the Grand Canyon Nature Reserve was established in 1906, most ranchers were forced to change careers because overgrazing turned the already fragile semi-arid grasslands into shrubs and deserts. The industry is unsustainable, and tourism gradually takes a dominant position.
By 1901, the railway was built to the south bank, which led to rapid development.
It became a national park in 1919 (the U.S. National Park Service was established in 1916).
Walking in the cool sun beside the huge rock arch, walking through the dry bushes, listening to the sound of the wind, I felt a real sense of solidity. The window area is where large rock arches gather, and several famous arches appear frequently on postcards. The Double Arch consists of two beautiful arches stacked next to each other. When viewed from the front, it looks like a chain, which is extremely elegant. Tourists were scurrying below, only to realize how high it was! A few miles away, Delicate Arch is an exquisitely isolated rock slope so famous that it is used as the image on Utah license plates. Walk a mile to see the Landscape Arch. It is one of the largest rock arches in the world, spanning 100 meters and 30 to 40 meters high. The top is only a few feet thin and may collapse at any time. The information said: "You are witnessing the sunset of a rock arch. The next time you visit, it may not exist." When I looked up again, I felt that it was not an exaggeration. The life of a rock arch begins when wind, frost, rain and snow create small pits on the mountain, then penetrate into holes, expand, and finally collapse into dust. New rock arches are born, old rock arches die, and time flows before your eyes. Making popular science knowledge vivid and interesting is a characteristic of North American natural scenic spots, and Rock Arch Park is no exception. Some signboards ask visitors to face a certain landscape and boldly draw shapes and colors, saying that it was originally a mountain, but later it became a huge rock arch, and then Mother Nature flattened it. The story is accompanied by a diagram, with dotted and solid lines depicting hundreds of millions of years of history, and the landscape in front of us does support that story. This mountain and thick land have been eroded layer by layer!
Yangong Park covers an area of ??only more than 200 square kilometers. It has always been known as a family park, which means that transportation and viewing are convenient, and it is suitable for family travel. The park attaches great importance to maintaining the natural ecology and does not build any commercial facilities, not even restaurants. There are only a few sagebrush growing on the vast Gobi Desert, which is also the highlight of the park. Hollywood once came to borrow a piece of treasure land, saying that it would invest 500 horses to film a fierce battle between Indians and federal cavalry, but the park collapsed and returned with two words: "No way." In fact, it is well known that the National Park System is strapped for cash, but the brainless park director still said: "I can't imagine letting them let 500 horses in to cause trouble!" This man's integrity made people look at Americans with admiration.
Geologists call the Colorado Plateau a "semi-desert". Most of it is wild and exposed mesas and canyons. It seems that no one will settle here. In fact, this is not the case. Human beings have lived here for at least 3,000 years. An important cultural feature of the Four Corners area is the cliff dwelling ruins left by the Indian people. For this reason, a number of parks have been established, such as Mesa Verde in Colorado, which is the most famous Indian heritage park.
Cliff dwellings are houses built in large hollows under cliffs, ranging from a few to hundreds. A cave is a village. Scholars calculated the age by counting the growth rings of the wood in the ruins, and found that these old residences were quite prosperous in the latter part of the 13th century, but in the few years or more than ten years before 1300, all of them suddenly disappeared. Speculations vary, but it is difficult to explain how these widespread cliff dwellings were abandoned at the same time. At some sites, there is still food in the food storage jars, and unfinished work is still spread out on the ground. This shows that the owner planned to come back when he left. Most anthropologists agree with this statement: American Indians developed into many groups after crossing the Alaska Land Bridge from Siberia into the Americas tens of thousands of years ago. The Indians of Central America were good at farming, while those in the north were good at fishing and hunting. Many of today's daily foods were first grown by Indians, such as corn, potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes. Interestingly, there were no horses, cattle, or sheep in America. These livestock were brought by Spanish colonists. The Indians riding horses today look as cool and elegant as if they have been riding for 30,000 years.
On the way from Highway 211 to the "Needles", there is a "Newspaper Rock" in a valley, which is covered with Indian rock paintings, including animals and other strange figures. Experts say some of these works are thousands of years old, while others are only a few hundred years old. As the world changes, countless stories have happened. An old man in the Four Corners area told her grandson: "A cloud and mist obscured everything. When the cloud and mist dissipated, everyone was gone and their destination was unknown." The Hopi tribe in Arizona is believed to be the cliff dweller. Descendants. They say that the spirits of the early cliff dwellers still live in the ruins. Tribes also come to worship their ancestors every year. Such a piece of land has its history and soul wandering around, so it has spirit.
The most famous one here is Monument Valley, which sits on the border of Utah and Arizona and is the home of the Na
Grand Canyon
The Weihao tribe garden. The vast Gobi Desert is dotted with terraces, pillars and various shapes. From a distance, it looks like a bonsai on a table. From a closer look, you can see that each of them is a giant. The most exciting part can only be entered by a local guide. The names of these caves, "Eye of the Sun" and "Ear of the Wind," make people feel dazed. When they are included in the camera and the moment the shutter is pressed, they can also feel the sacredness respected by the Indians. The sky is deep blue, and the wind blows the golden sofa and makes a low whine. This place turned out to be very isolated. Like most reservations, it was a remote area set aside by white people for Indians.
In the early 1960s, a white man came to live there, took photos and did business. As a result, this place has now become the most popular place in the world for filming. The advertisements for Marlboro cigarettes are simply tourism advertisements here, and many movies have been shot here, such as the 1999 technological absurdity film "Wild Wild West" starring Will Smith.
Bryce Park
From the Grand Canyon to Bryce National Park, the plateau rises up to five steps, named Chocolate Cliff, Vermilion Cliff, and White Cliff. Cliffs, gray cliffs, and pink cliffs rise layer by layer, revealing 3 billion-year-old colored sedimentary layers.
The Kehe River and its tributaries played a game of disemboweling the earth, taking out the oldest secrets and showing them off in the abundant sunshine. This area is called the Grand Staircase and is known as the Geological Museum.
Walking between the first and second floors of the Grand Staircase, slow down the pace, leisurely go west, then north, and wind around Bryce National Park from behind. As the terrain rises, the air gradually cools down, and the scenery of rural houses in Xiaoqiao also appears.
Bryce NP is the smallest of the five national parks in southern Utah. It is characterized by a large stone forest on the mountainside. To use a metaphor, it is the parade ground of the gods. This platform is the top level of the Grand Staircase, which is the Pink Cliff. The edge of the platform has been eroded into a pink stone forest, which is spectacular when viewed from the top of the cliff. The groups are clustered in thousands of shapes, stretching one or two miles wide and more than twenty miles long.
The air in Bryce is cool and the woods are thick. The park’s campgrounds are busy. After people set up colorful tents, they walked around various viewing platforms or visited the stone forest.
The Devil's Garden
The "garden" is a large area, like a magical land in a Western fairy tale, with porches, wall columns, and scattered pedestals, patiently waiting for someone to arrive. Groups of puppet-like stones stand on the smooth lines of the rock base. They look playful, simple and cute. It’s hard to believe that these rocks were weathered naturally, as they look nothing like the surrounding landscape. It's like a mysterious hand was playing with them just now. The surroundings were so quiet that you could hear the sounds of clouds in the sky and shadows passing by on the ground. A few people dispersed without seeing each other.
Not many people know about this impressive scenic spot.
Canyon Attractions
The best way to watch the sunrise is from SouthRim.
The clouds are dense and mysterious. There are many tourist routes to visit the Grand Canyon.
Canyon
Visitors can choose the appropriate one according to their own plans. What is cast on the Grand Canyon is a wave of swaying light and shadow.
Yavapai Point is located on the east side of the Grand Canyon Park and is the highest point for watching the sunrise. There is also a 3D model of the Grand Canyon in the Yavapabot Pavilion next to it, where you can clearly understand the full view of the Grand Canyon.
MohavePoint is a good place to watch the sunset. And from here you can clearly see the Colorado River flowing at the bottom of the canyon.
Yaki Point is an important landscape in the Grand Canyon. Looking down, you can see the tourists on the cliff and the solidified lava.
Majestic LandscapeGrandViewPoint This is indeed a majestic landscape. In the morning, I woke up with the meandering Colorado River, and heard the wind echoing in the valley and the gurgling water singing together. A quiet and refreshing picture is slowly unfolding around you...
Lake Mead and Lake Powell
The reservoir formed by the Hoover High Dam built in 1935 is called Lake Mead (MEAD), at the west end of the Grand Canyon. The Glencanyon Dam built in 1963 formed POWELL Lake and became a new attraction on the east side of the Grand Canyon. Between the east and west dams, there is the most exciting part of the Grand Canyon.
POWELL Lake is named in memory of the pioneer who first floated the river and suggested the development of water conservancy. Its area is more than twice that of Lake Mead, with various red sandstones, stone arches, canyons and thousands of blue waves. Its scenery is far better than that of Lake Mead, and it has become a major national resort in the southwestern United States.
Scenery on both sides of the strait
Americans believe that the scenery on the north bank of the Grand Canyon is better because it is higher than the south bank (nearly 3,000 meters), and the scenic spots are scattered and the distance is longer. Only 1/4 of the South Bank is open from May to mid-October every year. There are no buses or coaches, so you have to drive there by yourself, while the South Bank is open year-round.
The north coast passes through the KAITAB National Forest and is a Nordic forest and grassland scenery with abundant rainfall, with an average annual rainfall of about 660 mm. There is also a forest on the south coast, but the average annual rainfall here is only 400 millimeters, so it is not the shade-loving fir trees on the north coast, but drought-tolerant pines and cypresses, short and prostrate on the dry rocky mountains. Regardless of the north or south shore, the view is extremely wide, and all you can see is the undulations, fractures and cuts of the earth. Being condescending often gives you the illusion of overlooking a sand table, and it is easy to have the pride of dominating the world.
Standing on the shore, the trickle of the Colorado River deep in the valley is almost invisible. It is hard to imagine that this small yellow water is the main creator of the Grand Canyon. Many dams in the upper reaches have reduced the inflow of water, but dripping water can still penetrate the stone, which shows the age of this river. The rock layering on the canyon wall is complete and clear. It is a living specimen for studying the formation of the earth's crust, and a vivid classroom for understanding geological knowledge and even the earth. The Americans took full advantage of this advantage and focused on disseminating scientific knowledge in the explanatory boards and tourist brochures introducing scenic spots in the Grand Canyon Park. They also drew cross-sections of the rock formations seen by tourists at the location where they stood, and marked the different rock formations one by one. Names, characteristics and years of formation and why these specific shapes and colors appear. However, the scenic spots in my country that are famous for their strange rocks rarely have interpretive signs with shadow figures, and the tour guides' introductions are mostly limited to what the shapes resemble or myths and legends. If we can dig deeper into relevant natural science knowledge like the United States, so that tourists can broaden their knowledge wherever they go, they will be full of interest.
The Grand Canyon attracts 5 million tourists every year, and many American tourists are repeat visitors.
Big Valley
The numerous national parks, national resorts and national forests in the Colorado River Basin attach great importance to educational functions. Another unique feature of them is that the tickets are cheap. For non-commercial vehicles, that is, tourists drive into the park by themselves, tickets are charged per car, regardless of size, which is US$20 (of course it is impossible for ordinary people to use large cars). Tickets for walkers and cyclists are US$10 per person, including bus and bus fares in the park, and are valid within 7 days, with no limit on the number of times you can enter and exit. The authorities do not encourage tourists to live in the park. Tourists can fully visit the park by living outside the valley. In our country's Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area, for environmental reasons, hotels are built outside the ditch. However, tickets can only be used once, which objectively forces people to live in the ditch because they can't finish the fun in one day. The entrance fee to Jiuzhaigou is 102 yuan, plus the bus fare in the park is 88 yuan, the total is 190 yuan, equivalent to 23 US dollars per person. The tickets for walkers and cyclists in the Grand Canyon are half cheaper than those in Jiuzhaigou. If a group of four or five people drive to the Grand Canyon, the total cost is only four or five dollars per person.
The Colorado River, which stretches more than 300 kilometers from the Hoover Dam on Lake Mead to PAGE Ferry, is cut off by the Grand Canyon and is difficult to cross. There is a path from the shore to the bottom of the valley, which is 11 kilometers long and takes two days to walk. The river valley near PAGE narrows to only 20 meters, and the river bank is lowered to just over 10 meters high. It is the first place where a bridge can be built to ford the water. There are two small iron arch bridges side by side. Because the cliff to the north of the bridge is bright red and as smooth as marble, it is named Marble Canyon. This is also the shortest and only way to cross the river to the other side by foot or car.
Going across the bridge to the south is Route 89 to the tourist area on the south bank of the Grand Canyon. Along the way, you pass through the famous colored desert, as if the rough ocean instantly solidified into a sea of ??stone. On the undulating sand dunes, there are horizontal rocks The layers are red, white, gray, yellow and black, like a generous modern painting. Its original English name is PAINTED (painted), which is more appropriate. It's more like the Gobi than a real desert.
Glass Bridge
The suspended transparent glass viewing gallery bridge built at a cost of US$30 million in the Grand Canyon National Park was officially opened to the public on March 20, 2007. Local Indian tribal leaders and Some former astronauts became the first visitors to the new observation deck.
This breathtaking suspended covered bridge is built in the Eagle Cliff on the southern edge of the Grand Canyon at an altitude of 1,200 meters from the valley bottom. It is U-shaped and the longest distance is 21 meters from the rock wall. The covered bridge is about 3 meters wide and the base is made of transparent glass. Visitors can walk on it and overlook the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River.
This idea, known as the "Wonder of the World in the 21st Century", was originally conceived by Jin Miao, a Chinese-American entrepreneur born in Shanghai.
Jin Miao said that he was suddenly inspired when he visited the Grand Canyon in 1996 and first came up with the idea of ??building a suspended covered bridge over the Grand Canyon. He immediately worked with the Hualapai Indian Tribe of the Grand Canyon to raise funds and worked with engineers in Las Vegas to design a plan.
Constructing a suspended covered bridge is a major engineering and technical challenge. In order to make it able to withstand strong winds of up to 160 kilometers per hour, engineers drove 94 steel columns into the limestone wall as piers and penetrated 14 meters into the rock wall.
According to reports, the suspension bridge used 454 tons of steel beams in its construction. After completion, it can withstand the weight of 72 Boeing aircraft, and can also withstand earthquakes of magnitude 8 on the Richter scale and the highest earthquakes that occur 80 kilometers away. Winds with a speed of 160 kilometers per hour. With the help of the humidity control system, the shaking of the building can be reduced to a minimum. According to the builders' estimates, it will attract 500,000 tourists every year.
This viewing platform is located within the reservation of the Indian Hualapai tribe. Due to the potential boost to the local economy, the Indian tribe finally gave approval, and they requested that it be considered during the construction process. to environmental factors. Some members of the Hualapai tribe boarded the covered bridge for sightseeing on the 20th. The tribal leader joked: "I can hear the sound of glass breaking."
Former American astronaut Buzz Aldrin Calling the tour a "big first step", he said: "I feel great, it's not quite the same feeling as floating in the air.
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