The Colorful Grand Canyon
1540 AD
1540 1540
112.00W36.00N
NAT

GRAND CANYON, ARIZONA
	Just before dusk, with the low rays of the sun striking its variously colored granite, sandstone, shale and limestone walls, the Grand Canyon lights up in brilliant and beautiful colors.
	It is indeed a "grand" canyon, as deep as one mile and 18 miles wide in places.  The canyon is in a national park at the north edge of the State of Arizona in an area the size of the State of Rhode Island.
	Through the canyon flows the Colorado River, which scientists say cut the canyon into its many rocky formations over millions of years.
	The first European to see the canyon was Garca Lpez de Crdenas, who encountered it in 1540 as part of Francisco Coronado's expedition in the Pacific Southwest.
	The Grand Canyon area was made a national park in 1919.