Grand Canyon airlines offers a number of amazing adventures. Among the most breathtaking, comprehensive, and thrilling ways to explore this massive, ancient National Park is by air. Air tours originate near the park, and also in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Page, Arizona.
Located along the Colorado River Basin, this extraordinary gorge is 277 miles long, 18 miles wide, and more than 1 mile deep. According to geologists, this magnificent park exhibits about two million years of our planet’s geological history. This massive rift across the Colorado Plateau exposes ancient strata from the Proterozoic and Paleozoic Eras.
The weather in the area varies in line with elevation. Some high-elevation rim zones are forested, and receive periodic snowfall. However, along the river in the Inner Gorge, temps are arid, much like those of Tucson and other low-elevation desert areas. Along the South Rim, normal annual precipitation is less than sixteen inches. The North Rim gets about twenty-seven inches of moisture yearly, and the basin receives about eight inches.
The weather conditions have a big impact on tourism. Severe temperatures, high-elevation, winter storms, and late-summer monsoons offer many hazards. The National Weather Service’s South Rim station has been regularly monitoring temperatures since 1903. The temperature variations throughout the year are extreme. In the gorge, summer temperatures frequently climb to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In the winter, rim temperatures typically drop below zero degrees Fahrenheit. The record high temperature was 105 degrees Fahrenheit in June of 1974, and the low was 20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit in January of 1919, February of 1985, and December of 1990.
The uplift of this plateau is uneven, and the elevation at the North Rim is about 1,000 feet higher than the height at the South Rim. This difference in elevation leads to the North Rim having lower temperatures than the South Rim. Views from the North Rim are usually more panoramic, but access to the area is limited during the winter because of road closures.
The Colorado River basin has been changing for 40 million years. Geological experts have calculated that the canyon is approximately 17 million years of age. Considerable erosion has revealed one of the planet’s most geologically detailed rock columns. Much of this exposed strata was formed under-water millions of years ago.
In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt, an enthusiastic outdoorsman, went to see this majestic landscape. He was so impressed by its overpowering beauty that he established the area as a national preserve on November 28, 1906.
This national park is one of the world’s most widely used visitor destinations, attracting over five million visitors per year. Small airplanes and helis offer excellent options for touring the National Park. They’re able to supply breathtaking views of the most hard to get at areas. Many flights provide memento DVDs of the vistas visited.
Grand Canyon airlines provides lots of exciting opportunities to discover this national treasure. Since its creation as a national preserve in 1906, it has attracted and captivated many local and international visitors. In addition to regularly scheduled trips, there are a selection of charter flights offered. Some businesses run ultra-quiet aircraft, and provide tours of Sedona and Monument Valley, in addition to the incredible canyon.
