February 26th: Grand Canyon Day

It's Grand Canyon Day - the anniversary of Grand Canyon National Park which was established on this day in 1919.

1. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 kilometres) in length, 18 miles (29 kilometres) wide at its widest point and one mile deep - but it isn't the deepest or longest canyon in the world. That accolade goes to The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon in Tibet which is 17,567 feet deep, more than 2 miles deeper than the Grand Canyon. It is also about 30 miles longer.
2. About 2,000 people call the Grand Canyon home all the year round. Many of these are Native Americans of the Havasupai Tribe who live in Supai Village at the bottom of the Canyon. This is the most remote community in the lower 48 states - so remote that they need a Mule to deliver their mail. Havasupai, roughly translates to the “People of the Blue-Green Waters.” There are also the people who maintain Phantom Ranch, the only place to stay at the bottom.
3. The first people to live in the Canyon were Native Americans from the Puebloan tribe, around around 1200 BCE. The Canyon was unknown to Europeans until 1540 when Spanish explorers and soldiers, travelling with Hopi guides, paid a visit. It was 1776 before any Europeans came back.
4. There is plenty of wildlife - 1,750 species of plant, 17 different fish species, 91 mammal species and 47 reptile species, including pink rattlesnakes and lizards which can shoot blood out of their eyes to scare predators away.
5. There are no bridges across the Canyon, so if you want to go from one side to the other it involves a 215 mile drive all the way around, which takes five hours, even though the North Rim and South Rim are only about 10 miles apart straight across. It's possible for extremely fit and experienced hikers to walk across but this isn't encouraged.
6. More than 5 million people visit the Grand Canyon every year. This makes it the second most visited national park in the USA. Only the Great Smoky Mountains get more visitors.
7. It pretty much has its own weather system with vast variations in temperature and rainfall. The Temperature at the bottom can be as much as thirty degrees hotter than at the top, which has caught out many an unwary hiker. The coldest, wettest weather station in the region is the Bright Angel Ranger Station on the North Rim, while the hottest and one of the driest is 8 miles away at Phantom Ranch.
8. It's very old. Older than people thought. The long accepted belief was that the Colorado River began carving the Grand Canyon about 6 million years ago. However, in 2012, scientists discovered that it may actually date back 70 million years, when it was probably a series of smaller canyons; and it is probably still growing. A lot of fossils have been found in the Canyon, but no Dinosaur bones, as although the rocks are plenty old enough, the dinosaurs were already extinct when the Canyon formed.
9. As of March 10, 2012, the Canyon officially eliminated the sale of water in disposable containers. This was because 20% of the rubbish there was plastic Water bottles. What people need to do now is bring a container and fill up at one of the many free water stations.
10. About 600 deaths have occurred in the Grand Canyon since the 1870s. 53 were falls; 65 deaths were attributable to environmental causes, such as heat stroke, cardiac arrest, dehydration, and hypothermia; 7 people were caught in flash floods; 79 drowned in the Colorado River; 242 perished in airplane and Helicopter crashes (128 of them in a 1956 disaster alone); 25 died in freak errors and accidents, such as Lightning strikes and rock falls; and 23 were murdered.

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