In northern Arizona largely contained in the first national park in United States is the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is a huge steep-sided gorge which is approximately 227 miles long, it's approximately 15 miles wide, and the height reaches up to one mile at some points. Some say that there is some geological exposures in the Grand Canyon that date back up to two billion years.

Now despite these incredibly dated fines, most of the carving down of the Grand Canyon has occurred in only the last five million years or so. Sediments dating back millions of years were pushed up because of mountain building events due to plate tectonics. Because of this major uplift, the Colorado plateau was created and the Grand Canyon is a part of this Colorado plateau. The plateau is extremely uneven in spots and because of this, one end of the Grand Canyon is a 1000 feet higher than the other end. On the north rim, there is often cooler temperatures and better views because of this higher altitude.