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GRAND_CANYON_HISTORY
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| The Canyon's Slow Road to Star Status |
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Although its appeal is overwhelming, legislation moved slowly to protect the Grand Canyon. Benjamin Harrison introduced a bill into Congress in 1882 to create the national park, but local opposition, general public ignorance of the canyon and the fact that it would be another 30 years before Arizona gained statehood, and therefore representation in Congress, hindered the process.
Through the repeated efforts of Harrison and people like naturalist John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the area finally became a national park in 1919, a half-century after it was first explored by John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran.
Of course, the canyon was visited by other than Americans over its six-million-year history. While a young King Tut couldn't imagine what a stir his desiccated flesh would someday make, Desert Culture tribes were living inside the canyon's walls.
When Europe was in the throes of the plague-riddled Dark Ages, Pueblo Indians were living a mostly happy agrarian life within this seemingly endless crevasse, created by continent forming forces pushing up as the Colorado River cut down with an assist from the occasional earthquake. Exposed rock strata at its base was formed two billion years ago.
In 1540, Coronado reached the canyon led by Hopi Indians, but soon left thinking it offered little value. The first mechanized vehicle to reach the Grand Canyon was was the Toledo Eight-Horse horseless carriage. It banged and chuffed its way to the South Rim in 1902.
Today, the canyon receives some five million people a year, 40% of whom, Coronado would be pleased to know, are not originally from the U.S. Such great numbers warrant some advice: if possible, avoid the park during peak summer months and on holiday weekends. Of course, if you're on a motorcycle, don't wait too long in the year.
Summer temperatures at the South Rim’s nearly 7,000-ft. elevation usually reach highs in the 80s, dropping much cooler at night, from low teens to high 20s. Spring and fall can be unpredictable. Although daytime temperatures generally range between 40 and 60 degrees in the shoulder seasons, he said, be prepared for sudden and sometimes extreme changes in weather. Snow is possible, as are icy winds and roads, in late fall or early spring. Forget the winter. |
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GRAND_CANYON_ROADTRIPS
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Click on a trip below to adopt the trip. You can change the dates, add your preferences, or even rearrange the items in the Trip Plan, then plot the trip and save it as your own.
Road trips around the Grand Canyon
GRAND CANYON - FAMILY TRIP
Breath-taking views, museums and railways.
For details see article on: 
GRAND CANYON - HISTORICAL
Fossils, buildings, and trails all speak of a curious history of the land.
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