10 Must-See Natural Wonders Near the Grand Canyon

[phkrause]

http://www.smartertravel.com/photo-galleries/editorial/10-must-see-natural-wonders-near-the-grand-canyon.html?id=1015&all=1

[Lauralea]

^{Sedona is really gorgeous too. I actually enjoyed it more than the Grand Canyon.}

[Aliensanctuary]

I think we saw the Grand Canyon from the air a few years ago. It looked kind of small from 35K feet. We're planning a road trip to Texas from California this fall and hope to see it up close.

[phkrause]

I think we saw the Grand Canyon from the air a few years ago. It looked kind of small from 35K feet. We're planning a road trip to Texas from California this fall and hope to see it up close.

​Saw it in '72. We were moving from NYC to California. Was working for FFT at the time and they decided to relocate. So we stopped there, my wife had seen it before, I had not. It was massive from ground zero.

Edited May 9, 2015 by pkrause

[phkrause]

🔬 Grand Canyon origins revealed

View from Mather Point on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park in Grand Canyon Village, Ariz. Photo: Kaylee Greenlee/Reuters

New research is giving us an understanding of how the Colorado River, which carved the Grand Canyon, arrived at the region 6.6 million years ago, Reuters reports (🔒). The study — published this week in the journal Science — found the river began to flow into a basin in northeastern Arizona, forming a wide and shallow lake east of where the Grand Canyon later took shape. 🌊 The lake water built up over time and eventually spilled over a low point on the lakeshore starting around 5.6 million years ago, sending it coursing through the region that became the Grand Canyon, the researchers found. "We have long known that the river existed in western Colorado 11 million years ago, and that it did not [run through] Grand Canyon until after 5.6 million years ago," study co-lead author Ryan Crow said. "But until now, we knew almost nothing about where it was during the intervening time." Explore the study.

[Joe Knapp]

Or it could have happened in one year when a big deluge of water drained off. 

I was in Nevada more than 20 years ago. I wanted to go to the Grand Canyon park, but it was closed due to a government shutdown.