BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Southwest USA Grand Canyon

We are visiting the Grand Canyon in April and want to know if it is best to take a paid tour with a professional company starting at $100 per person or would a self guided tour be sufficient. Pros and cons please.

If you don't have much time and want to see as much as possible, I'd say take the tour.

If you want to explore at your own pace and maybe escape the crowds, stop in at the information centre, ask for a trail map, and step outside the postcard perfect views for a one-of-a-kind, personal experience.

I would say self-guided.

I would just go on your own - that way you can see exactly the things you want to see, and not what a tour guide has on their agenda.

Not a tour. You really can't go wrong at the Canyon. Pick any spot on the rim and enjoy walking around, then head over to the GC Village and wander in the shops/museums and STILL see the views. Eye the tiny trails and peek at the river far below. Breathe the amazing air.

Plus catch sight of the magnificent condors, if you keep your eyes open.

I have only been to Grand Canyon in my dreams -- but, I agree with Jilly and the others, that a self-tour would give you more options and your own preferences.

The Grand Canyon is in northern Arizona. It was carved by the Colorado River as the land rose. The knife and cake analogy is used. The river is the knife held stationary while the cake is lifted. It took seven million years to carve the Canyon.

The Grand Canyon is a mile deep and 277 miles long. It averages 10 miles across. It is shaped like a bra or a woman's bosom. The Canyon continues to widen as its rims disintegrate. Two billion years of Earth's history are exposed.

Erosion from water, ice and wind widen the Canyon. Water has the greatest impact. It gets into cracks in rocks and freezes. Cracks widen, and Canyon walls collapse.

The Grand Canyon is the most complete geologic column on the planet. Rock layers are the same on both the north and south rims.

Geologists study rocks. Paleontologists study fossils. Their work overlaps because fossils are found in rocks, an indication that they are the same age.

Rocks can be dated. Even if they could not, it is obvious as we dig into the fossil record that life was less complex in the past. Simpler fossils are found in older layers as we descend.

Sedimentary rocks are laid down by water. Layers of sedimentary rock form when oceans move in and out. Limestone forms when they move in. Shale forms when they move out.

Rocks in the Grand Canyon are from the Paleozoic Era. There are no rocks from the Mesozoic or Cenozoic. They either eroded away or were not laid down. That means there are no fossils of dinosaurs, birds or mammals. The Paleozoic is the era of shelled invertebrates.

Kaibab Limestone is the top layer of the Canyon. It is 250 million years old. It formed at the bottom of an ocean and contains fossils of ocean animals.

Coconino Sandstone is the remnant of sand dunes from 270 million years ago. Sandstone is solidified sand. There are no fossils.

Hermit shale was deposited 280 million years ago. Shale is solidified mud. It contains plant fossils, indicating that it was above water.

The schist at the bottom of the Canyon is two billion years old. Schist is metamorphic rock.

GEOLOGIC TIME -
CENOZOIC ERA - present to 60 million years ago - mammals
MESOZOIC ERA - 60 million years ago to 220 million years ago - fish, amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, birds
PALEOZOIC ERA - 220 million years ago to 540 million years ago - invertebrates

The age of the earth is 4.6 billion years. The oldest rocks on earth are 3.8 billion years. The oldest fossils are 3 billion year old microbes.