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Grand Canyon Project

By: Colton Scolman, Alex Orelup, and John Canez

South Rim of Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is a massive gorge is filled with an abundance of plants and animals. While we were there we hiked the South Kiabab Trail to the 1.5 mile check point. This is a perfect place to form the Grand Canyon, at first it was just a flat land, that means that nothing would disturb the Colorado river when it would eventually carve out theGrand Canyon. There are many beautiful views and species of animals. Facts The Grand Canyon used to be under they ocean until it was carved out by theColorado River. TheGrand Canyonis 277 miles long and 18 miles wide. The grand canyon took over 5 million years to erode and form. TheGrand Canyonhas over 70 species of mammals, 250 species of birds, 25 species of reptile, and 5 species of amphibians. In theGrand Canyonhas a very diverse population with over 1,500 different species of plants, 355 birds, 89 mammalian, 47 reptiles, 9 amphibians, and 17 fishes. The canyon offers a nearly undisturbed natural habitat through a range of elevations from the desserts to mountain forests on the rim. The location of the Grand canyon is aroundArizona,Colorado,Utah, and New Mexico.

River Trip on the Colorado We went down the Colorado Riveron Lee’s Ferry. We saw amazing view and ancient Anasazi petro glyphs. The Colorado river is a large river that is 1,450 mi. long and provides clear water for thousands of towns, power for major cities such asLos AngelesandPhoenix. While on theColorado riverwe took a pontoon boat ride from the start of the dam to the end of the tour available to the public. The Colorado River trip is outside the Grand Canyon. There is a tiny waterfall called little Niagara, which leads into theColorado River. The steep walls are over 1500 feet high.

Facts Waters of the Colorado River was first developed by the Anasazi Indians in northwestern New Mexico as early as 600 A.D. the Colorado River supplies water to over 25 million people and helps to irrigate 3.5 million acres of farmland. The Rainbow Trout is the only fish in theGrand Canyon. A rock called Monk Rock named by John Wesley Powell. The founder of Lee’s Ferry was John D. Lee. Lee’s Ferry drives you 700 miles into canyon country. Guided Fishing trips are possible. Even backpacking is possible in theGrand Canyon. TheGrand Canyonerodes 8 inches per year. In 1919, congress made the grand canyon a National Park. In 1869, John W. Powell made the journey across theColorado River, losing a lot of men and supplies to the dangerous river rapids.

Wupatki National Monument This monument was our personal favorite part of this trip. It was the ruins of a once great 100 room house. It didn’t look like much present day but I bet it flourished about 10,000 years ago. We got to go into it take a tour, it was really nice because our group had a separate guide who knew a lot about the location so we got to go ahead of the rest of the people and see the natural air conditioning like “blow hole”. We all thought that this was the coolest part of the trip because of its unique feel and calmness.

Facts In the year 1182 about 100 people lived in the large pueblo and by 1225 the site was entirely abandoned. In Hopi, wupatki meant “Tall House”. Tall house was a big trading post for native Americans long ago. Many settlement sites scattered throughout the monument were built by the Ancient Pueblo People. The walls that make up the building are made of the local Moenkopi sandstone giving the pueblos their reddish color. There is a geological blowhole there. Blowholes are air vents that blow and suck in cool and hot air from caves and underground passages. Sunset Crater This was the last part of the trip, we arrived late so we did not actually hike the crater, but we did look at it up close and learn a lot of information. The day before we did go to the look out and we were able to see the crater at sunset, the crater was beautiful in the sunset and there is no mistake to call it Sunset Crater because of its natural beauty and its geographical positioning. Facts Sunset Crater was formed between the years 1064-1065 A.D. Only about 25% of the magma that was erupted was lava flow, the other 75% helped form the Bonita Lava Flow. About 75% of the magma erupted at Sunset Crater erupted explosively as scoria. About half of the scoria fell near the vent and built the Sunset Crater and about half fell and covered area with ash and other volcanic pieces.