The Grand Canyon
5,280 feet
7,920 stairs
(1 stair equals approximately 8 inches)
If you climb to the top you will
burn approximately
5,650 calories.
View from the South Rim
The Grand Canyon is a steepsided gorge carved by the
Colorado River in the U.S. state
of Arizona, and parts of Nevada.
It is largely contained within the
Grand Canyon National Park —
one of the first national parks in
the United States. President
Theodore Roosevelt was a major
proponent of preservation of the
Grand Canyon area, and visited
on numerous occasions to hunt
and enjoy the scenery.
Longstanding scientific consensus has
been that the canyon was created by the
Colorado River over a period of six
million years, but research released in
2008 suggests a much longer 17 million
year time span. The canyon is 277
miles (446 km) long, ranges in width
from 4 to 18 miles (6.4 to 29 km) and
attains a depth of more than a mile,
(5,280 feet). Nearly two billion
years of the Earth's history have been
exposed as the
Colorado River and its tributaries cut
their channels through layer after layer
of rock while the Colorado Plateau was
uplifted. The "canyon started from the
west, then another formed from the
east, and the two broke through
and met as a single majestic rent in
the earth some six million years
ago. The merger apparently
occurred where the river today,
coming from the north, bends to
the west, in the area known as the
“Kaibab Arch."
During prehistory, the area
was inhabited by Native
Americans who built
settlements within the canyon
and its many caves. The
Pueblo people considered the
Grand Canyon ("Ongtupqa"
in Hopi language) a holy site
and made pilgrimages to it.
The first European known to
have viewed the Grand
Canyon was García López de
Cárdenas from Spain, who
arrived in 1540. In 1869,
Major John Wesley Powell, a
one-armed Civil War veteran
with a thirst for science and
adventure, made the first
recorded journey through the
canyon on the Colorado
River. Powell referred to the
sedimentary rock units
exposed in the canyon as
"leaves in a great story
book".
Keep track of your stairs.
Each box equals 25 stairs.