virtual tours grand canyon

The Grand Canyon

A closer look at the grand canyon.

Grand Canyon National Park, in Arizona, is home to much of the immense Grand Canyon, with its layered bands of red rock revealing millions of years of geological history. Viewpoints include Mather Point, Yavapai Observation Station and architect Mary Colter’s Lookout Studio and her Desert View Watchtower.

Take your time and explore the views of this stunning Grand Canyon 360 virtual tour!

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Grand Canyon Webcams and Virtual Experiences

You don’t have to visit grand canyon national park to experience its spectacular attractions like hopi point, bright angel trail and phantom ranch..

Even if you can’t travel to the park right now, you can still see, hear and experience what’s happening, thanks to some amazing technology like Grand Canyon webcams and Google Earth. Here are some of our favorite ways to feel like we are in the park, even when we’re nowhere near it.

Get Live Views on Grand Canyon Webcams

Is it clear and sunny at the South Rim? You’ll get the answer when you check out this live web cam positioned at the Yavapai Museum of Geology on the South Rim.  www.nps.gov/grca/learn/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm

Fly to Grand Canyon

One of the best ways to experience Grand Canyon National Park when you can’t visit is to fly there via Google Earth. You can see what Bright Angel Trail looks like on the South Rim, take in the breathtaking views from Hopi Point and then fly to Cape Royal, a popular picnic spot on the North Rim.  earth.google.com+

You can even fly near Havasu Falls, which is just outside of Grand Canyon National Park, and known for its gorgeous turquoise water. To visit Havasupai Falls in person, you face a competitive permit system administered from the Havasupai tribe, so flying there gives you an effortless glimpse into this unique place.

Explore Phantom Ranch and Desert View Watchtower

If you can’t make it to Phantom Ranch, the amazingly isolated group of cabins and a small restaurant at the bottom of the canyon, visit it in one of the episodes of Grand Canyon In Depth. Phantom Ranch is just one episode of a video podcast series that explores the natural and human history of Grand Canyon National Park. You’ll listen to and see park rangers, scientists and historians who share the park’s places like Desert View Watchtower and tell stories.  www.nps.gov/grca/learn/photosmultimedia/grand-canyon-in-depth.htm

Go on An Archaeological Dig

Want to go on a tour with archaeologists uncovering Grand Canyon’s ancient past? Experience 360 photos that show the archaeologists at work in this first major excavation in 40 years.  www.nps.gov/features/grca/001/archeology/

Check out Vintage and Contemporary Photos

The park has an archive of photos of more than 5,000 photos from the past and today that you can view on Flickr. Spend some time in this incredible archive, picking out sites you recognize and putting others on your bucket list.  www.flickr.com/photos/grand_canyon_nps/albums/

Other Resources

For more webcams, virtual tours, photo galleries, apps, videos, and other digital content at  www.nps.gov/grca/learn/photosmultimedia/

Popular on Grand Canyon National Park Trips

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Grand Canyon Rim Trail Virtual Walk

We are at the Grand Canyon. It’s cold and windy as we walk along the Rim Trail.

The Treadmill Walking Video

Grand Canyon Rim Trail Virtual Walking Trail in Winter

The Grand Canyon is the most popular national park in the United States. It get’s talked up as one of the most amazing scenes in the world but I have to say, it’s not overhyped. My first look took my breath away, especially since it was right at sunset. Sorry, the walk is the next day in the cloudy windy weather.

As we make our way north we make a short 1 day stop at the Grand Canyon= National Park. We are at the more popular South Rim which is also the only part open. We are at nearly 7000ft of elevation and so we’ll encounter some snow on our walk as we make our way along the Grand Canyon Rim Trail from the Powell Monument to El Tovar Lodge. The views are stunning but so is the ecosystem. I hope you enjoy this virtual nature walking tour from one of the most iconic locations in the US and Arizona. Keep on Steppin’ -H

Cold but Less Crowded Time to Visit

Along the Rim Trail we find several different lookouts. In the summer, they close the access road and have a system of free shuttle buses. In the winter they open the road b/c there are so few visitors. Something like 6 Million visitors come to the park every year, mostly in Summer. It’s hard to imagine how crowded it must get.

The park has several different lodges and campgrounds and of course you can stay outside the park in nearby Tusayan, AZ which has several hotels and eateries. However, my dream is to arrive by train and stay at El Tovar Lodge. This historic lodge is one of three on the rim of the canyon. We go inside and see a bit of it at the end of the walk.

This walk is a bit longer but I think the views are worth it. I really enjoyed our short time there and would love to go back in warmer weather and maybe hike down into the canyon.

Keep on Steppin’ -H

More Arizona Virtual Walking Tours and City Walks

Desert Walk – Sabino Canyon in Arizona Tucson Walking Tour – Virtual City Walk in AZ Arizona Ranch Walk – Virtual Nature Tempe Virtual Walking Tour and ASU Campus Grand Canyon Rim Trail Virtual Walk

VR Horseback Ride in Arizona Desert

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World  /  North America  /  United States of America  / Grand Canyon, USA

Grand Canyon, USA

We invite you to a journey to Grand Canyon, one of the deepest canyon in the world. The width of the canyon ranges between 20 and 6 kilometers. However, there is one spot where it narrows down to 800 meters. As it narrows down, the walls pull closer together reaching 100 meters gap at the rock bottom.

The canyon has been in the making for 10 million years. 4 different geological eras of Earth are represented in the canyon. Underground forces pushed the Colorado River bed up, forcing the water to gradually cut into the plateau and wash out the canyon's soft rocks. We have already published photopanoramas of this most famous US tourist attraction. Now we represent you 360 video over Grand Canyon, USA.

Authors of the video: Dmitry Moiseenko , Sergey Semenov and Ivan Roslyakov

3 December 2014

Open Gallery

Virtual Travels in 360°

my mom rafeded there

How earth looks like and we should keep it safe

Fernando Aparicio

The video was amazing and the clouds over the Grand Canyon were unique. I want to visit one day when I'm older.

Tyler Hayward, New Zealand

Take care of the earth for it can look even better

Wankyu Lee, Korea

C'est Formidable.J'aimerais bien voir des paysages du Maroc. Merci.

Andr#233 BARNES, France

Thank you very much for your beautiful photos and video. What you are doing is really amazing !

Ariel Valensi, France

Amazing! I had no idea this was possible. :

N P, United Kingdom

I love earth

Rasuol Mohammadi, Iran

Mojtaba Rahimi, Iran

Well done--I live in Arizona and you captured the beauty of Grand Canyon splendidly..

Ed Nelson, USA

The video fatal error. Nedd repair. Thant a lot.

daniel garcia rusca, Argentina

Grand Canyon Conservancy needs to raise $150,000 before midnight on 4/30 to fuel critical projects in the United States of America’s only Natural Wonder of the World. 

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Bright angel trail, south entrance station.

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10 of the best virtual tours of the world's natural wonders

If you’re bored of lockdown strolls in the local park, try these online hikes to Everest and Patagonia and a jaw-dropping ascent of El Capitan

10 virtual tours of the world’s most famous landmarks

The Grand Canyon, USA

At 277 miles in length, 18 miles across at its widest, and a maximum 1,857 metres deep, this vast Arizona landmark is grand in nature as well as name. Around 40 sedimentary layers are visible in its steep cliffs, with the oldest basement rocks formed around two billion years ago. Hike the canyon’s Bright Angel Trail via a Google Street View Trek . One of the most popular long-distance routes in the national park (9.3 miles), it zigzags up from the Colorado River to the south rim. Like with other entries in the list, wider exploration is on offer with Google Earth view , which lets users zoom in and out and click into points of interest – the peaks of Wontons Throne or Angels Window, for example – for further information. Another VR project, AirPano , has high-definition 360-degree images for a bird’s eye view of the Red Rocks.

Mount Everest, Nepal

Known in Nepali as Sagarmatha and Tibetan as Chomolungma , the world’s highest peak sits on the border between Nepal and China. Explore Everest’s south base camp in Nepal, at an altitude of 5,380 metres, with interactive 360-degree views of snowy peaks and colourful prayer flags. Via an interactive map , and a 3D rotating viewer, you can gaze at the 8,848-metre summit, plus other Himalayan peaks stretching west into Pakistan and east to Bhutan. Clicking the human-shaped icon on this page highlights all the points around the mountain range that can be explored further at ground level. Views from other peaks, including over the Imja River and mountain villages, are visible in these 360 degree images . There’s also shot of a busier south base camp – it sees about 35,000 visitors a year, after all.

The northern lights

The aurora borealis is a dazzling natural phenomenon caused by Earth’s magnetic field interacting with electrically charged particles from the sun. The lights are visible from countries at high northern latitudes, such as those of Scandinavia, Russia, Iceland, Greenland and Canada. The Norwegian Lights over Lapland project takes travellers on a five-minute journey through a series of 360-degree videos. The virtual trip starts in the Icehotel in Abisko national park, northern Sweden, heads into the wilderness on a reindeer sleigh, passing Lake Torneträsk and an Arctic birch forest on the way to a cosy wooden Sami hut at the base of Mount Noulja. A series of time-lapse videos then show the lights dancing overhead in vibrant streaks and arcs of rippling green. There are 360-degree images with a view from elsewhere in the world, including Iceland , over the Goðafoss waterfall; in Yamal and on the shore of the Barents Sea in Russia; and in several locations around Norway . You could even be lucky enough to witness the lights live via webcam in Manitoba, Canada.

Hang Sơn Đoòng , Vietnam

The world’s largest cave, Hang Sơn Đoòng in central Vietnam’s Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park, was explored by scientists for the first time in 2009, after a local man, Ho Khanh, discovered it in 1991, but did not locate it again until many years later. Sơn Đoòng 360 is a project by National Geographic aiming to preserve the cave in digital form before it becomes subject to extensive tourism development. A trek – created from 360-degree images and atmospheric sound effects – heads through light-filled caverns, passing a 70 metre-tall stalagmite called Hand of Dog, and huge sinkhole jungles. Keep an eye out for members of the expedition crew, and take advantage of the high- definition images to zoom into details of the cave’s geology, flora – and fauna, too, if you look hard enough.

Yosemite national park, USA

Yosemite, in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, is a diverse and spectacular natural landscape. It’s home to more than 400 species of animals, including around 500 American black bears, rare snowshoe hares and endangered mastiff bats. Granite monoliths tower over meadows, rivers and forests, including one the park’s most notable sights, El Capitan, standing over 900 metres tall with a near vertical cliff face. US climber Lynn Hill was the first person to free climb (without aid equipment) the challenging Nose route in 1993. Scale the mountain with Hill and her team, learning more about skills, techniques and equipment as you ascend to dizzying heights. The climbers jam their hands into “flakes” of rock and swing across the face to reach vertical cracks, stopping on a ledge, El Cap Tower, for the night. Explore the national park further with these 360-degree images , complete with sound effects, including sound Ahwahnee Meadow and Nevada Fall.

Zhāngjiājiè national forest park, China

The quartz-sandstone pillars of Zhāngjiājiè – pronounced jaang-jyaa-jie – were the inspiration for the floating peaks of the Hallelujah Mountains in James Cameron’s Avatar film. Their unique shape is caused by physical erosion from water, ice and the roots of trees and foliage. Take flight around these towering natural columns – some stretching up over 1,000 metres – in an interactive video tour exploring the site, and zoom into high definition 360 degree shots from the sky. The park is also home to an ancient temple from 870AD, the cliffside Bailong glass elevator, and the world’s highest and longest glass bridge, strung between mountains 300 metres up, and a busy tourist spot – though seen in these 360-degree images with fewer crowds.

Giants Causeway, Northern Ireland

This fantastical section of County Antrim’s Atlantic coastline is made up of more than 40,000 interlocking, geometric (mostly hexagonal) basalt columns. Legend has it that the unusual rock formations are the remains of a stepping-stone causeway path to Scotland, built by giants. Scientists believe they were in fact formed by lava flowing into the sea, as molten basalt erupted through chalk beds 50 to 60 million years ago. The National Trust has created a series of virtual tours, with views from Aird Snout headland and by the water’s edge in the bay of Port Noffer at different times of day. There are also sweeping views from above to explore elsewhere, including the Carrick A Rede trail and rope bridge.

Perito Moreno glacier, Argentinian Patagonia

Despite the climate crisis causing many of the Earth’s glaciers to shrink, the defiant Perito Moreno remains largely undiminished; if anything, scientists say it’s growing. Covering 97 square miles of Los Glaciares national park, it is fed by the melting waters of the south Patagonian ice fields in the Andes. A set of interactive images on 360cities, give an impression of the scale (use the white arrows to click between views), as well as the variations of blue – the less oxygen in the ice, the bluer it gets. An immersive video tour of the wilderness beyond the glacier, created by the Guardian in 2018 (above), takes viewers around the varied landscape of the protected Parque Patagonia, passing turquoise rapids, a rainbow and a pack of guanacos roaming the plains.

Ambrym volcano, Vanuatu

This virtual tour ventures down into one of the world’s most active volcanoes, just a few metres from a churning 1,200C lava lake. It follows adventurers Ulla Lohmann and Sebastian Hoffmann, a couple who make documentary films, along with volcanologist Thomas Boyer, who descend together to the third terrace of Benbow, one of the main vents of the Ambrym volcano, on the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.. The short interactive film joins the team as they prepare for the expedition, travel to base camp, up to the rim beyond the jungle, into the ash plain, and abseil down into the crevice, sitting just 60m away from the lava. The longer hair-raising 25-minute documentary , Spitting Distance – The Descent Into a Raging Volcano, is also available online.

Namib desert dunes, Namibia

The swirling sculptural patterns the Namib desert’s sand dunes stretch for 31,000 square miles across the Namib-Naukluft national park in southern Africa. Some of the largest can be found in the Sossusvlei area, home to mountainous swathes of pink-orange sand, including the 388m-high Dune 7, which sits opposite Big Daddy at 325m, and Big Mamma, 198m. There are several interactive 360-degree images offering views from the giant dune ridges. The tour also includes the iconic Deadvlei, a salty clay pan backdrop to blackened, dead acacia trees; mist approaching from the sea of the Skeleton Coast; and a starlit scene showing the Milky Way.

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Most viewed.

Virtual Tours at The Grand Canyon

While we are all navigating through quarantine life, virtual tours have become a new hit in our lives. We all love to enjoy the simple pleasure of exploring a place we’ve always wanted to see from the comfort of our couch! We also always appreciate that the kids can go at their own pace and have fun with virtual toursI So what if you’ve always wanted to hike through the Grand Canyon ? Or narrow down your to-do list once you’re here? We’ve rounded up the best virtual tours in our area!

The Canyon walls can be explored, discovered and examined in three different virtual field trips . This tours also includes a video from top scientists, so you’ll learn more than just on an average hike! Dive into remote areas that may not be discovered while trekking on your own. These are the perfect tools to help you get a better of what to explore when you get here!

The Colorado River Raft Tour offers photos that are step by step through the rafting, so you get the entire experience! Use their maps and resources to know exactly where you are throughout your journey.

You can also enjoy wide open views over Lake Powell and all of the sights with AirPano’s virtual helicopter tours! Choose your own path over the water and use the right navigation menu to see different points on the lake! Horseshoe Bend also has their own virtual tour here .

When you’re planning your next vacation, book with Grand Canyon Rentals to save 20% on your stay when you use promo code 598770. This code is valid through April 30, so spend your next weeks of isolation planning and give yourself something to look forward to!

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Virtual Tours of Arizona's Attractions

The best way to experience Arizona is to see it for yourself. When you can't, these virtual tours of Arizona's popular sites are the next best thing.

There are plenty of reasons Arizona has to be seen to be enjoyed: the lively metro areas and Insta-worthy food, the historic small towns and their Western charm, and the jaw-dropping landscapes.

When you can't be here in person, these virtual tours, webcams, Google Earth* hiking trails and interactive content from the likes of Grand Canyon National Park, Phoenix Art Museum and Tucson Botanical Gardens will let you discover Arizona the next best way—from wherever you are, even from the comfort of your couch.

* If you own an Oculus VR headset, be sure to download the Google Earth app for a more immersive experience.

Visit Arizona Experiences

Soar above the Grand Canyon in a skydiving adventure, or shred Sedona's trails on a mountain bike with these immersive virtual reality experiences, filmed in partnership between Visit Arizona and MacGillivray Freeman Films.

Grand Canyon Skydiving Paragon Skydive gives you a front-row seat to the breathless excitement of stepping out of an airplane and soaring free over the Grand Canyon. Look around and take in the stunning bird's eye view of this remarkable wonder.

Sedona Mountain Biking Get a first-hand glimpse at this mountain biking paradise and watch the (virtual) dirt fly as you race across trails surrounded by Sedona's striking red rock cliffs

Featured: Grand Canyon National Park

Dig deep with Grand Canyon's virtual tours (in partnership with Arizona State University) as you explore places within this natural wonder, including Blacktail Canyon, using a combination of 360-degree images, videos and guided lessons. Photo tours by the U.S. Geological Survey take viewers rafting on the Colorado River and on a hike to Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the South Rim. Or go exploring with Google Earth, which recently rolled out virtual tours of the Grand Canyon and several other national parks.

The Great Outdoors: Trails, Parks and Monuments

Also check out:

• Arizona Trail Virtual Adventure : Walk, run, bike, or crawl the Arizona Trail (AZT) virtually. Complete at least 25 miles and get some great AZT swag.
• Saguaro National Park : short videos on the plants and wildlife of this desert park
• Petrified National Forest : webcam footage from the historic Painted Desert Inn
• Picacho Peak State Park : trail views courtesy of Google Street View
• Montezuma Castle National Monument : movies and panoramic images that viewers can click and drag to change the view (requires Apple's QuickTime software)
• Pipe Spring National Monument : Learn about the historic Winsor Castle, built 1870, with images and text.

Featured: London Bridge & English Village

Ever wonder how England's London Bridge ended up in Western Arizona? Learn how while touring the rehomed bridge and surrounding area virtually, courtesy of Go Lake Havasu . Alternatively, sit back and watch the boats drift by on the Bridgewater Channel, which flows below the bridge, on the 24/7 webcam.

History & Heritage

• Arizona Historical Society : vast digital hub with activities for children and adults, recipes, lesson plans and a calendar where you can register for the latest virtual programs
• USS Arizona Memorial Gardens at Salt River : An online video and two-part podcast detail the efforts that led up to the unveiling of this outdoor memorial, which honors those who served aboard the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
• Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew Learning and Tribute Center : video tour with Greg Mengarelli, mayor of the city of Prescott
• Hall of Flame Fire Museum : video storytime helps teach young ones about fire safety
• Museum of Northern Arizona ( Facebook and Instagram ): See art from current exhibitions, live-streaming of their collections, and features on artists.

Featured: Phoenix Zoo

On the Phoenix Zoo's Digital Safari page , you'll find educational, fun, unique content and behind-the-scenes access to animals, keepers and the staff who keep the zoo running. Links include exclusive YouTube videos, blog posts, photos, animals facts and activities to entertain the kiddos and keep the adults interested, as well. (Spring 2020: Tune in every day at 1 p.m. for new content!)

Zoos & Wildlife

Also, check out:

• Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum : weekly, free classes for children about the desert's plants and animals taught by museum educators and scientists
• Reid Park Zoo : live webcams of the zoo's lions, elephants, giraffes and more
• Butterfly Wonderland : fun lessons and games for children and short videos of the exhibit's animals

Featured: Lowell Observatory

As part of Lowell Observatory's efforts to stay connected and continue its mission of science education, they've begun hosting live streams and interactive stargazing from their YouTube channel . Past and future topics include "Meet an Astronomer: A Bird's Eye View of the Universe," and "Cosmic Coffee," a series that explores a different topic in astronomy or planetary science each week.

Science & Education

• Arizona Science Center : at-home learning with videos, articles and STEM DIY experiments
• Pima Air & Space Museum : live stream of the museum's outdoor exhibit (or take a virtual tour )
• i.d.e.a. Museum : creative projects and experiments for young ones

Featured: Taliesin West

Tour the main building of Taliesin West and other areas / Credit: Steve Minor

Taliesin West , Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home, is the first of the famous architect's properties to be made freely available online with an interactive digital experience and virtual tour. Explore at your leisure the UNESCO World Heritage Site, including rooms, gardens and walkways, while you gain insight into how the desert surroundings inspired Wright.

Art, Music & Architecture

• Phoenix Art Museum : selections of the museum's 19,000 objects spanning collections such as Latin American art, fashion design, photography, contemporary art and the miniature Thorne Rooms
• Herberger Theater Center : previews of the center's gallery exhibitions
• Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) : tour the interior with Google (sadly, without sound)
• The Nash (Facebook) : Downtown Phoenix jazz club and community center posts near-weekly videos of local jazz musicians and ensembles.

If you are currently offering a virtual or digital experience and would like to be featured in our online resource please submit details to [email protected] .

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A Virtual Field Trip to the Grand Canyon

For decades, the Grand Canyon National Park has been a popular tourist attraction. In fact, millions (anywhere between 2 to 5 million) of people each year go and visit the Park.

A trip to the Grand Canyon is a lot of fun for the whole family. For kids, the National Park has designed three programs especially for them: the Junior Ranger Program, which is a very fun program that helps teach kids about the National Park (programs available for each age group); Camp Programs (that take youths on the hiking adventure of a lifetime); and Educational Programs (for kids and teachers, who may want to learn about the Grand Canyon).

The Grand Canyon National Park doesn’t stop there; it also offers schools the opportunity to receive lesson plans related to the Grand Canyon for professional development, and the chance to actually have a Park Ranger come and visit the school and classrooms. As a result, the programs offered by the Grand Canyon make the experience extra special for kids, even if it means taking a virtual trip there.

The U.S. National Park Service (  www. nps .gov/  ) is the best Web site to visit. It provides all of the basic information about all National Parks (including the Grand Canyon).

• National Geographic  – A great site for everyone (including kids) to know: How the Canyon came to be the Grand Canyon.
• The American Southwest  – A Web site for Arizona visitors. There’s information on the Grand Canyon National Park.
• Map  – Here’s a map of the Grand Canyon National Park.

Grand Canyon Facts

Kids, do you know the answers to these questions?

Q:  Where is the Grand Canyon?

Answer:  It sits on the Colorado Plateau in northwestern Arizona. It covers 1,218,375 acres of land.

Q:  What river flows through the Grand Canyon?

Answer:  The Colorado River.  

Q:  The Grand Canyon has been home to what settlers?

Answer:  Native Americans. It’s been their home for thousands of years.

Did you know that…  The Grand Canyon has five life zones that show different vegetation and animal life: Lower Sonoran, Upper Sonoran, Transition, Canadian, and Hudsonian.

Also, did you know that within the sedimentary formations of the canyon are fossils and bones that can help trace the history of life on earth?

Amazing Fact!  Inside the Park are over 1,500 plants, 355 birds, 89 mammalians, 47 reptiles, 9 amphibians, and 17 fish species. Yes, it’s true!

The amount of recorded archaeological resources: over 4,800 (only 3% of the park area).

The “SkyWalk” is a glass bridge (at the west rim of the Grand Canyon) that allows tourists to walk out over the edge and peek through the Canyon’s rim from a see-through surface beneath them. What a sight! Many tourists each year come to this part of the Canyon to look out over the edge and admire the amazing views.

Here are some basic facts about the Grand Canyon: 

• River length: 277 miles
• Canyon width: 10 miles (15 miles at its widest)
• Canyon depth: 1 mile (average depth: 4,000 feet deep) (deepest point: 6,000 feet deep)

Also, the Grand Canyon extends north to the Kaibab Plateau and south to the Coconino Plateau.

• Merriam’s Life Zones  – This is the best place to learn about the characteristics of each life zone.
• Arizona Leisure Vacation Guide: Grand Canyon  – A great site of factual information on the Grand Canyon.
• Grand Canyon Trivia & Facts  – This is the ultimate place for Grand Canyon Trivia and Facts.

Grand Canyon History

In 1893, the Grand Canyon was afforded federal protection as a Forest Reserve. In 1908, January 11, the Grand Canyon was designated a national monument. In 1916, the National Park Service (NPS) assumed administration of the park. In 1919, February 26, the Grand Canyon was designated as a National Park by President Woodrow Wilson. In 1979, the Grand Canyon National Park was selected as a World Heritage Site, which means it is now part of the cultural and natural heritage and is a sign that the World Heritage Committee considers the Park having outstanding universal value.

• Grand Canyon National Park: A World Heritage Site  – This is a page that provides basic information about the park; but, most importantly, gives the Date of Inscription (1979) as a World Heritage Site.
• Grand Canyon National Park History  – Here’s a brief history of the Park.
• Maps of Grand Canyon National Park  – Both maps and historical information are presented on this Web site.

Grand Canyon Geology

For years, Grand Canyon’s geologic landscapes have been studied. Drainage systems that run through the rock have formed numerous deep canyons (hence its name, Grand Canyon). It’s well known for its geologic significance.

The Grand Canyon has the biggest and most spectacular gorge (which is a deep valley between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river) in the world. In fact, the gorge is 1.5-kilometer (0.9 mile) deep and is about 500 m to 30 km wide (0.3 mile to 18.6 miles). The gorge formed by geologic activity and erosion by the Colorado River. The geologic boundaries of the Grand Canyon span in all four eras of the earth’s evolutionary history, from the Precambrian to the Cenozoic.

• Overview of Grand Canyon Geology and Rock Formations  – A technical (but yet easy to understand) geological history–time and durations of creation–of the Grand Canyon.
• Grand Canyon Information  – This is a great Web site containing Grand Canyon information as well as the geological history of the Park.
• Grand Canyon Rocks  – Here’s an excellent site that explains in-depth (but, easy to understand) the geology   of the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon Biology

The biological province of the Grand Canyon: Rocky Mountains.

As mentioned before, the Grand Canyon has life zones which present biological attributes to the Park. Also, within the Park are several major ecosystems which include all of the living organisms (plants and animals) in a specific area, and forest and desert communities. Some of the ecosystems shown in the Park are rare. Be aware that many plants and animal species found in the Park are protected because threatened or endangered.

• Ecological Restoration Institute (Grand Canyon)  – An educational site providing research of ecosystem monitoring (obtaining ecological data to reconstruct past forest structure and fire occurrence, etc.).
• Grand Canyon National Park – Biological Soil Crusts  – A site that covers Grand Canyons Biological Soil Crusts.
• Center for Biological Diversity  – Information on what is being done (and by whom) to protect the Grand Canyon (an example of recognizing the Grand Canyon Protection Act of 1992).

More Educational Resources

With so much to learn about the Grand Canyon, knowing where to look for various information is essential. Any search engine will turn up hundreds of sites on the Grand Canyon, but not all sites provide trusted and secure navigation or true information; therefore, look over the links already provided. Note: Of all of the educational sites on the Web, those that are more suitable for kids are…

• Family Fun at the Grand Canyon North Rim  – This site provides information on Grand Canyon Hikes for Kids (and their family).
• Grand Canyon National Park – Just for Kids  – A helpful Web site, just for kids. It provides some good information about what to do while at the Grand Canyon National Park.
• Family Activities at the Grand Canyon – This site mentions the WebRanger program, a place to go online to share park stories and pictures with other kids. It also explains the Junior Ranger program. Both programs provide fun for both kids and adults.
• Grand Canyon for Kids  – The place to go to know more about the Junior Ranger programs (those for all age groups).

In summary, with all that has been mentioned about the Grand Canyon National Park, having only a virtual tour of it might not be enough; other options, include: Distance Learning Opportunities (one-hour distant learning programs via the Internet, provided by the Environmental Education Branch), or actually going there.

Lastly, kids are encouraged to check out the Grand Canyon’s Environmental Education (GCEE) Program. GCEE provides grants to kids to be able to go and visit the Park. The program will even provide gear for kids who need it.

• Grand Canyon National Park  – Not only a great site for information, but it contains many beautiful photographs of the Grand Canyon, as well as other things (like rocks containing fossils) found in the Park.
• Maps & Directions, Weather, Info & Contact  – All the information you need to know to head to the Grand Canyon.
• Grand Canyon Outdoor Education – A place that provides an educational experience for the Grand Canyon.
• Grand Canyon Railway  – Official site that instructs how-to and how much (rates) for a train ride that gets you to the Canyon and back.
• Drive Yourself Directions to the Grand Canyon  – This site provides driving directions to the Grand Canyon.

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Last updated: February 6, 2024

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