CARVING OF A CANYON

foreign T and I'm standing on the south rim of the Grand Canyon in Grand Canyon National Park you have to see it to believe it a great many people have tried to describe the Beauty and the size of the Grand Canyon artists writers poets but I'm afraid no one has succeeded the dimensions are too great there just isn't anything to use for comparison the Grand Canyon has many moods many faces you get a strikingly different view from every point along the rim because you can't begin to see it all from any one point every hour of the day the scene changes and if you are lucky enough to see a summer thunderstorm in Grand Canyon you will never forget the site have you ever wondered what great power it was that formed the Grand Canyon there's one person who has asked that question almost every day Dave Beal Chief Park naturalist at Grand Canyon National Park Dave just how big is the Grand Canyon anyway well Bill the canyon winds across this Kaibab Plateau for 217 miles it varies in wood from one rim to the other from four to as much as 14 miles and it averages one mile in depth how could we go about finding out just what it was that formed the Grand Canyon well I could explain it to you from up here but I think perhaps the best thing to do would be for us to take a trip down into the canyon itself or you game for a ride on one of these Grand Canyon mules well looking at the face of the canyon I'd say that it would take a sure-footed mule to go down into the canyon well the trails are very good and well maintained but a mule comes in very handy okay let's go at the mule Chorale we saw a colorful scene before we mounted I had a chance to talk with Howard peelman the Wrangler who would be with our party well how about mules on this Trail we're going down they're better than horses yes they are considered better than horses for this particular job they are more sure-footed and reliable yeah here's how you don't panic part so usually there's a horse or for real sometimes they're a little temperamental we say like the women well have you ever lost a customer going down the trail oh we never have lost a customer we're always kidding them about it the air that they want to go off once I guess they do you think we'll make it all right today then I think we'll make it real well today Dave Beal and I mounted our mules and soon our party was headed down the bright angel Trail 10 rugged miles of Trail lay ahead before we would reach the bottom of the mile deep Canyon one false step could bring disaster [Music] the steepest parts of the canyon wall are traversed by switchbacks and as our mules slowly made the turns we could look straight down for a thousand feet as we descended the temperature steadily climb it was about 105 degrees now and we were all feeling the effects of the Heat Dave explained an amazing situation which is experienced in the trip from the north rim to the bottom of the canyon we were seeing the same change in plants and animals and in climate as well which we would see in a trip from Canada through the United States and into Mexico when we reached the bottom of the canyon the temperature would be similar to that of a Mexican desert about 115 degrees [Music] our first rest stop was at Indian Gardens where the Havasupai Indians once cultivated their little Farms after several hours on the hot dusty trail we found the cool tree shaded Oasis an excellent spot for resting our aching muscles while eating lunch the rim of the canyon seemed far off but we still had a long way down to go we found an entirely different world when we reached the Tonto plateau the thick forest of the rim had completely disappeared and we were now in a desert country once the trail leveled off and for a moment we thought we had reached the bottom only to find another Switchback and another tremendous drop wind our way down it was a spectacular Journey to the bottom made more so by the enormous formations that towered like temples around us Dave pointed out to me gigantic rocks balanced on an outcropping of the canyon wall ready to plunge downward tiny plants called lichens grow on the rocks forming acids which eat holes into the Rock wind rain and snow filled a hole with water and dirt and in Winter ice forms exerting its enormous power to crack the rocks trees then grow in the cracks and the growing Roots split off the rock which eventually rolls down the canyon wall and the Grand Canyon is a little bit wider at times it seemed we would never reach our objective but suddenly we turned and saw it there below us was the bottom of the canyon with the great Colorado River marking Journey's End he weaved our way down along the high Cliffs overlooking the river and a short time later we reached the edge of the river itself at long last we have reached the bottom of the Grand Canyon and I am standing now on the bank of the Colorado River it was 10 long hot miles down to the bottom of the canyon by Bright Angel Trail and nearly a mile straight down here we find the answer to the question how was the Grand Canyon formed the Grand Canyon is known as the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River because it is the river which is most responsible for the carving of the canyon on our trip down we saw the forces of erosion which have helped cut away the walls of the canyon bringing the debris down to the river to be carried away the river does its work in two ways it carries away all of the Rock and the Earth which is brought down to the river by the forces of erosion otherwise this great canyon would fill in and as it carries away the debris the river uses the rock and sand as cutting tools to grind away at the river bottom every day the river carries along a half million tons of silt by this point and every day it will Roll Along the bottom of the river a half million tons of these great boulders this process never ceases it has been going on every second every hour every day every year for millions of years this is the secret of the formation of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River the forces of nature power of a mighty River and an eternity of time