Here are 19 amazing Grand Canyon facts
1-5 Grand Canyon Facts
1. There’s a Post Office at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It serves the Havasupai Reservation and the town of Supai, and post arrives via mule on a 2 1/2 hour journey each day. – Source
2. The largest hotel suite in the world is located 22 stories under the surface in the Grand Canyon Caverns. One night for two people in this 65 million-year-old cave is around $700. – Source
3. Over 1 billion years of history is missing from the geologic record in the Grand Canyon. – Source
4. A father pretending to fall in the Grand Canyon to scare his daughter actually then fell 400 feet. – Source
5. Commercial flights were allowed to fly any course to their destination and would often detour over points of interest. This ended in 1956 when two planes crashed mid-flight over the Grand Canyon. – Source
6-10 Grand Canyon Facts
6. The Colorado River was not the original name of the river that helped split the Grand Canyon. Before February 18th, 1921 it was called the Grand River. – Source
7. There is a conspiracy theory that Egyptian treasures and tunnels were found in the Grand Canyon in 1909 and subsequently covered up by the Smithsonian. The area in question has numerous Egyptian landmark names and is currently off-limits to all hikers. – Source
8. Fewer people have completed a continuous length-wise hike through the Grand Canyon than have walked on the moon. – Source
9. Two college graduates traveled the US vandalizing historical and private signs as “grammar vigilantes”. After damaging a sign in the Grand Canyon that was more than 60 years old, the two were banned from National Parks for a year, given probation, and made to pay for the restorations. – Source
10. During a government shutdown in 1995, 5 mountain bikers rode their bikes to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. – Source
11-15 Grand Canyon Facts
11. A blind man successfully kayaked the Grand Canyon. – Source
12. The first European explorers who saw the Grand Canyon thought it was a worthless annoyance and predicted that nobody would ever visit it. – Source
13. Americans consume enough peanut butter each year to coat the floor of the Grand Canyon. – Source
14. In 2008 a biologist in the Grand Canyon died of the plague. – Source
15. To boat through Grand Canyon National Park, you apply for a permit a year ahead of time, and only a limited number of permits are given. For a 12 day permit, it’s a lottery and a minimum of $300. – Source
16-19 Grand Canyon Facts
16. No white man saw the Grand Canyon until after the Civil War. It was first entered on May 29th, 1869 by the geologist John Wesley Powell. – Source
17. The year that the original Jaws movie came out (summer 1975), visitors to the Grand Canyon rose by ~40% over the previous year. – Source
18. The Grand Canyon’s rim is 7000′ above sea level. – Source
19. The Grand Canyon has an attraction called Skywalk which is a transparent horseshoe-shaped cantilever bridge that extends past the lip of the canyon, allowing you to see a 500-800ft vertical drop directly below your feet. – Source
The source for number 7 links to a paid subscription service in order to read it (aka paywall). Any chance on a proper, free source?
Last header says 16-20 Grand Canyon Facts. There are only 19 🙁
#12 and #16 contradict each other. Doesn’t make it any less interesting. Thanks for an interesting and enjoyable website.
That’s because number 16 is complete rubbish. Click the source and it actually shows various dates before 1869 where it was visited. “The first Europeans reached the Grand Canyon in September 1540.”