Why is the Grand Canyon protected?

It is protected by the many laws that have been passed and programs put in place by the government to conserve and restore the natural wonders of the Grand Canyon in order to leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. Park scientists use integrated pest management techniques to eradicate and ...



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The Making of a National Park President Benjamin Harrison first protected the canyon in 1893 by renaming it Grand Canyon Forest Reserve. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt visited the canyon. He designated it a national monument in 1908.

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The Grand Canyon offers one of the most visible examples of a worldwide geological phenomenon known as the Great Unconformity, in which 250 million-year-old rock strata lie back-to-back with 1.2 billion-year-old rocks. What happened during the hundreds of millions of years between remains largely a mystery.

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As employees of the National Park Service (NPS) we are tasked with both protecting the land and sharing it with the public. It is a big job that takes a lot of people.

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It's estimated that there are more than 1,000 caves inside the Grand Canyon, with only 335 documented and even fewer mapped, explored, or inventoried. Today only one cave is open for visitors to explore, and it's called- the Cave of the Domes on Horseshoe Mesa.

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20 Amazing Grand Canyon Facts
  • Grand Canyon National Park is bigger than the entire state of Rhode Island. ...
  • The Hopi Tribe considers the Grand Canyon a gateway to the afterlife. ...
  • Temperatures vary greatly within the canyon. ...
  • The canyon is full of hidden caves. ...
  • In 1909, the canyon was the site of a giant hoax.


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The composition (sandstone) and presence of stromatolites indicate that this area was previously a very shallow sea. The rock layers in the Grand Canyon Supergroup have been tilted, whereas the other rocks above this set are horizontal.

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Falling Deaths at the Grand Canyon: 198 60 people have fallen off the ledge. 63 people have fallen from inside the canyon. 75 people in this category purposefully jumped or fell to commit suicide.

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About 900 people have died in the Grand Canyon. The leading cause of death is airplane and helicopter crashes, followed by falling from cliffs, environmental deaths (such as overheating), and drowning. On average, about 11 people die per year in the Grand Canyon.

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Some scientists believe that the Grand Canyon is 70 million years old. Others contend that the natural wonder is only between five and six million years old. Both are right. Scientists examined rocks from the Grand Canyon with the so-called thermo chronology method.

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One of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Grand Canyon is an unbelievable spectacle of nature. It is a great, huge slash in the surface of the earth - 217 miles long, 4 to 18 miles wide and a mile deep, with the Colorado River flowing at the bottom.

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The Grand Canyon is indeed a very big hole in the ground. It is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide and more than a mile (6,000 feet / 1,800 meters) deep. It is the result of constant erosion by the Colorado River over millions of years.

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Grand Canyon West is situated on the Hualapai Indian Reservation and is an enterprise of the Hualapai Tribal Nation, a sovereign Indian nation that has been federally recognized since 1883.

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From the top of the Seven Devils Mountains to the deepest part of the Snake River, Hells Canyon is nearly 8,000 feet deep. That's almost 2,000 feet deeper than the famous Grand Canyon in Arizona.

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Native Americans view the Grand Canyon through myriad lenses: As a land tied to their place of origin. As a place to be both feared and revered. As a place of opportunity. As an inspiration for cultural expression.

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The first Europeans to reach the Grand Canyon were Spanish explorers in the 1540s. President Benjamin Harrison first protected the Grand Canyon in 1893 as a forest reserve, and it became an official United States National Park in 1919.

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