Random Facts About the Grand Canyon That You May Not Know Part 2

A year ago we posted a blog on a few random facts about the Grand Canyon, well there is a never ending well of facts for us to draw from and we thought we’d share some more!

1. Most visitors to the grand canyon never even go below the rim. The rim of the Grand Canyon sees around four and a half million visitors a year, but of that 4.5 million only around 10% of visitors venture deeper. And only 1% of visitors end up all the way down at the bottom by the river. 

2. The Grand Canyon is half the timeline of the world on display! For millions and millions of years the Colorado river has been carving the Grand Canyon, exposing rock layers that are normally buried deep below. These rock layers are records of what our world was like before us. They are full of information on the history of our world and help us to create a timeline of what came before us.

3. The widest part of the Grand canyon is 18 miles as the crow flies. A lot of focus on the Grand Canyon is placed on how deep it is, but the width of it is just as impressive. From rim to rim at the widest part of the canyon is 18 miles across!

4. Out of all the animals in the grand canyon the one that causes the most problems for people are the squirrels! The Grand  Canyon is full of all sorts of animals, a lot of which people assume are dangerous like rattlesnakes, scorpions, mountain lions and big horn sheep to name a few. But the animal that actually hurts people the most in the Grand Canyon are the squirrels on the rim of the canyon. Visitors on the rim ignore that they are wildlife and try to feed them, this results in those visitors getting bitten. At least one person is bitten by a squirrel on the rim of the Grand Canyon every day. So don’t feed the Squirrels! 

5. The bright blue water you see at Havasu is not because the water is actually blue. The bottom of the creek is actually coated in a white calcium carbonate deposit called travertine. This white bottom makes the water’s reflection of the clear blue sky look even more blue.

6. The grand canyon is filled with caves! There are estimated to be around 1,000 caves within the grand canyon, but only around a third of them have been explored. Many of these caves are hidden away high up in the walls of side canyons making them incredibly difficult to  reach and explore.