We took a small twin engine plane run by ‘Scenic Airlines’ to get to Grand Canyons from Las Vegas. The flight took us over Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, the Colorado River, extinct volcanoes, and the Rainbow Gardens. I took this picture from the plane on the way to the Canyons.
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Well known for its geologic significance, the Grand Canyon offers an excellent record of three of the four eras of geological time, a rich and diverse fossil record, a vast array of geologic features and rock types, and numerous caves containing extensive and significant geological, paleontological, archeological and biological resources. The Canyon, incised by the Colorado River, is immense, averaging 4,000 feet deep for its entire 277 miles. It is 6,000 feet deep at its deepest point and 15 miles at its widest.
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Access to the Grand Canyon is from the Grand Canyon national park. A popular place to view the grandeur of the Canyons is the Yavapai point. Yavapai Point is fairly close to the main visitor area. We visited this area on the way back and it was late in the afternoon. Early morning or late afternoon are the two best times to see the canyon formations as the light enhances the natural colors. There is also an interpretative center and enclosed viewing area at Yavapai Point (in case of bad weather).
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Perhaps more than any other National Park in America, the Grand Canyon contains a huge variety of spectacular but largely hidden and inaccessible places - waterfalls, pools, narrow ravines, and oases - that cannot be reached by the casual tourist. Many of the wonderful side-canyons, with their associated photogenic features require a day or more travelling on foot from the canyon rim or complicated journeys involving boat trips down the Colorado to reach them. It is perhaps comforting to think that no matter how crowded and over-developed the South Rim overlooks become, most of the canyon will remain empty and essentially unvisited.
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It was almost dusk as we passed over the Mojave Desert on our way back to Vegas. Mojave is an arid region of southern California southeast of the Sierra Nevada. Once part of an ancient inland sea, the desert was formed by volcanic action and by materials deposited by the Colorado River.
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