The Grand Canyon became a park in the year 1919. The Grand Canyon became a national park in order to give it the best protection we as a nation have to offer.

The Grand Canyon was formed by erosion from the Colorado River. About 5 or 6 years ago, the Colorado River flowed across the Colorado Plateau. Each year, the river and the rain cut down the canyon and eroded the sides. Up at the top there are two billion year old rocks. The Colorado River starts in Colorado and ends in the Gulf of California in New Mexico. The Colorado River widens every year.

Limestone Sandstone Shale Basalt

The main kinds of landforms/features are cliffs, plateaus, mesas, buttes, slopes, ridgelines and side canyons.

Every time it rains or snows erosion happens in the Grand Canyon. Water runs off in floods and carries grains of rock. Cycles of freezing and thawing in the winter widen cracks in the rocks, and eventually producing rockfalls. Rock fall by rock fall, the Grand Canyon continues to grow.

Despite its protected status as a national park, a host of environmental challenges facing Grand Canyon threaten to complicate management of the park's vast resources. A new report says will only continue to escalate. Encroaching development, proposed mining, an influx of yearly visitors and the management of the Colorado River threaten the canyon’s air and water quality.

The Grand Canyon park service provides a program where class’ that can’t visit can connect via the internet. This is mostly like Skype, where a park ranger can talk to a class over the internet. www.nps.gov/webrangers

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