Saturday, 28 September 2019

Day 16 – Las Vegas to Grand Canyon

After a very late night, it was nice to find out that today was a bit of a driving day today, where we would be spending most of the day getting to the Grand Canyon, ready for sunset this evening. 


The Grand Canyon is a canyon, which was formed as a result of erosion carved out by the Colorado River in the state of Arizona. It is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and has a depth of over a mile. Nearly two billion years of the Earth's geological history has been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut through layer after layer of rock. Geologists believe that the Colorado River established its course through the area about 5 to 6 million years ago and since then the Colorado River has driven through its tributaries and the retreating cliffs, simultaneously deepening and widening the canyon.
The main cause of the erosion that formed the Grand Canyon was water; most scientists agree that it formed when the Colorado River started carving through layers of volcanic rock and sediment between five million and six million years ago and it continues to erode today.

We actually arrived at the Grand Canyon in plenty of time for us to explore independently, although not without getting a glimpse of it from the main sightseeing viewpoint first. Myself, and a few others went on a walk, which went down into the Canyon, although it only went so far because we had to be back in a specific place for sunset. You can do the full hike, which takes roughly 12 hours, and we met some walkers on the way who had done this. I’d love to have had a lot longer and got much further in, but it was still amazing getting this different perspective.
We then settled down to watch the sunset. If I’m being honest I was expecting there to be more colour over the canyon itself, but the sky was incredible.




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