10. Grand Canyon, AZ

The Grand Canyon is six million years old, which means it was carved by the Colorado River in "only" six million years. This is a short time period compared to the age of the rocks in the canyon walls. Incredible to imagine that the river carves through solid rock. It carves away the thickness of a piece of paper every year (grinding through more than 4000 feet (1200m) of younger rocks). It still cuts today , but the mighty Colorado will uncover no more rock layers. It has reached the very foundation of the continent. The canyon widens as cliffs fall down and side streams erode. Through erosion and tectonic plate movement the canyon grew year by year.
We had high expectations of Grand Canyon when entering the National Park. We spent two days here exploring. One day we did both rim sides by bike. Second day we did the South rim & river hike which took a whole day, As two Germans said it took them 10hrs to do the hike we were motivated to do an early start. We were doing the whole hike on Memorial Day from 6:30 - 14:00. We even went for 2 short dips in the Colorado River, it was crazy cold but super awesome refreshing. It was a great experience. Every corner here looks soooo overwhelming. Grand Canyon is exactly how we expected to be, grant. Enjoy the photos 😊Read more