Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

One of the seven wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon is a vast canyon system located in present day Arizona, west of the Navajo Reservation. Almost three hundred miles in length and one mile deep, the Grand Canyon's steep and variegated walls reveal billions of years of geological history. In addition, because the Canyon is so extensive, cut as it has been through the Colorado Plateau by the Colorado River, the Canyon creates its own weather patterns due to the powerful and super-heated uplifts that surge up out of the canyon bottom. Continuously occupied for thousands of years by several Native American communities for whom it remains a sacred place to this day, the Canyon entered protected federal status as a National Park in 1919. Currently, the Canyon is revered as much for its natural beauty as for its various layers of biological, ecological, archaeological, and cultural significance.