Sham--Grand+Canyon

~Grand Canyon~ The Grand Canyon is not only the largest canyon in America; it is also an important part of our history and popular place to visit. The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is expensive and overcrowded, and there is usually a shortage of parking. In the Grand Canyon they love the snow-capped mountains, evergreen forests, and cactus-covered deserts. Each colorful layer of the canyon’s wall tells a story, also plant and animal fossils show that the area was once a sea. People have lived in the Grand Canyon about 6,000 years.

The Hopi Indians brought Spanish explorers to the canyon in 1540. On the other side of the Grand Canyon, the particularly remote Tuweep  area to the northwest can be reached by several dirt tracks of over 60 miles starting from US 89 in Utah and offers some spectacular viewpoints, but most of the countless square miles of the canyon and its tributaries are completely inaccessible by road. As others have said, sometimes the scale and extent of the Grand Canyon is disconcerting - the great gorge is too vast to take in at first sight, but a hike  down beneath the south rim gives a more intimate and manageable perspective. The Grand Canyon is a very famous place. Almost everyone visits the canyon, they even live there.

The Grand Canyon is special for many reasons, there rocks and how ancient the place is. For inexperienced hikers, even a short walk along the level and partly paved Rim Trail (which parallels the south edge of the canyon for 13 miles) is enough to escape the all crowds at the major viewpoints. ** Most of the hundreds of tributaries that form the side branches of the Grand Canyon ** ** are not particularly narrow; rather they are stepped in cross section because of the many strata of differing hardness which cause the upper walls to erode sideways as the canyon deepens. The larger side canyons are very impressive, offering many multi-day hiking routes through remote scenic areas well away from the South Rim crowds, and often there are narrow sections with typical slot-like features of pools, chokes tones, waterfalls and deep water-carved channels, as is the case with Milkweed Canyon ****. But the best slots are close to the Colorado River in the depths of the main gorge and so not easily accessible by overland hiking; places such as Elves Chasm, Olo Canyon, Travertine Canyon and Matkatamiba canyon need either access by boat, or overnight hikes and most likely some rappelling. **

==== ** In the far north of the park, downstream of Lees Ferry ****, the Colorado flows through Marble Gorge, deepening steadily but still on a rather smaller scale than the more well known areas further south. Here the side canyons too are narrower and more intimate and there are several that offer a route to the river. Catherdal Wsh **** is the easiest hike - others may require swimming of pools or climbing down dry falls. Possibilities include Badger Canyon, Hot Na Wash, North Canyon, Rider Canyon, Salt Water Wash, Soap Creek, South Canyon and Tanner Wash ****. The eastern tributaries on Navajo land are easily reached from US 89 or short side tracks while some of the western canyons are further from the road and involve longer trips on rougher tracks. ** ==== ==== **   In the main part of the Grand Canyon, only a few slots are reachable by road. They include Parashant Canyon in the far northwest, though a long and difficult day hike is needed to get there, and the limestone narrows while quite pretty, are relatively short. Much further east, parts of Kanab Creek and the very lower end of Deer Creek also have nice slots but again an arduous trek is needed to reach them. On the South Rim, the most accessible area is in the Hualpai Reservation  ** **, where interesting canyons include Milkweed **** and Hindu ****. ** ====