Grand Canyon

Colorado River Rapids

Perhaps the most thrilling and exhilarating part of Colorado is the Colorado River. Starting in the northern tip of the world renown Rocky Mountain National Park, the river meanders its way through the Grand Canyon in Arizona, which it created over millions of years of smoothing away different layers of rock, each a different eye pleasing brilliant color. Each rock is a different color, forming colorful rock formations and jaw dropping, mind boggling, eye pleasing sunsets that millions of people come to watch from all over the world. This deep crevasse on our mother earth, thought by fairytale believers, to be carved from Paul Bunyan dragging his giant sized axe, is one of the many natural beauties of this place we call home.
The Colorado River is one of the longest rivers in the U.S, with 1,450 miles of rushing and relaxing H2O. This river cuts its way through seven western U.S states and two Mexican states. Thousands each year raft this ever changing river, with gushing waterfalls and churning whirl pools, it’s like a natural roller coaster. Only the daring and thrill seeking chance their lives for this electrifying adventure of survival and skill for the time of their lives.
At its deepest point, it is 6,000 dizzying feet straight down, that’s more than a mile. The Grand Canyon has some of the most wonderful and memorable rock formations formed by almost all of the elements of nature. There are also some man made features, including thirty power plants and dozens of dams and reservoirs. One of the newer man-made structures in the Grand Canyon is The Grand Canyon Skywalk, it is a unique glass-bottomed cantilever structure that spans 70 feet over the Grand Canyon’s rim and sits 4,000 feet above the Colorado River. It is a truly amazing feeling to be standing 70 feet into the Grand Canyon, be able to look straight down more than a mile, and see the Colorado River winding its same path that it has taken for the past 17 million years. Another one of the Colorado Rivers great accomplishments that isn’t man made is that from its start point in the Rocky Mountains, to the end in the Gulf of California, the altitude drops an amazing 5,310 feet. Wild animals enjoy this river no matter what altitude it is.
There are also various types of animals, home to 88 species of mammals, 56 species of reptiles and amphibians, 300 species of birds, and 17 species of fish, the Grand Canyon is what many species of animals call home. But when you meet up with one of these magnificent animals, keep your distance, if you get to close to them, they might get protective and attack you.
It doesn’t matter if you like animals or nature or the outdoors, you will be amazed at the beauty and mysteriousness of this river and canyon pair, together, they make one of the most beautiful places in the U.S.