0891-0892, 0911-0912, 0943 & 1000 UNITED STATES (Arizona) - Grand Canyon National Park (UNESCO WHS)

The park's central feature is the Grand Canyon, a gorge carved out by the Colorado River (nearly 1,500m deep, 445.8km long), which is often considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Its horizontal strata retrace the geological history of the past 2 billion years, and there are also prehistoric traces of human adaptation to a particularly harsh environment. The primary public areas of the park are the North and South Rims of the Grand Canyon itself. The rest of the park is extremely rugged and remote, although many places are accessible by pack trail and backcountry roads. Only the Navajo Bridge near Page connects the rims by road in Arizona.


"The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance af time..." writted the poet Henry David Thoreau nearly 200 years ago. And the President Theodore Roosevelt said in 1903 after he visited visited the site: "The Grand Canyon fills me with awe. It is beyond comparison - beyond description; absolutely unparalleled throughout the wide world... Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is. Do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity and loveliness. You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see."

The floor of the valley is accessible by foot, muleback, or by boat or raft from upriver. Hiking down to the river and back up to the rim in one day is discouraged by park officials because of the distance, steep and rocky trails, change in elevation, and danger of heat exhaustion from the much higher temperatures at the bottom. The most used are the corridor trails, of which perhaps the best known is the Bright Angel, originally built by the Havasupai Native American tribe for access to the perennial water source of present day Garden Creek. In the center of the third postcard can be seen Desert View Watchtower, also known as the Indian Watchtower at Desert View, a 21m) high stone building located on the South Rim. The four-story structure, completed in 1932, was designed by architect Mary Colter.


In the fourth postcard is Havasu Falls, a waterfall located on Havasu Creek, within Havasupai tribal lands. It consists of one main chute that drops over a 27m to 30m vertical cliff into a large pool. Due to the high mineral content of the water, the configuration of the falls is ever-changing and sometimes breaks into two separate chutes of water. The falls are known for their natural pools, created by mineralization, although the configuration of the falls and the pools are damaged or destroyed repeatedly by large floods that wash through the area. High calcium carbonate concentration in the water creates the vivid blue-green color and forms the natural travertine dams that occur in various places near the falls.


Many of the canyon's landmarks were named by geologist Charles Dutton who published one of the earliest detailed geologic studies of the canyon in 1882. He believed that the canyon was such an important feature on the planet, that the names of its features should reflect all the world's cultures and thus he chose many names from mythologies from around the world. This explains the names of the three formations of the fifth postcard, respectively Krishna Temple, Vishnu Temple and Freya Castle. Other geologists named rock layers after surrounding landmarks, so the rock which forms the crystalline basement that underlie the Bass Limestone of the Unkar Group of the Grand Canyon Supergroup and the Tapeats Sandstone of the Tonto Group was named Vishnu Schist, after Vishnu Temple. And is only an example.

Where the North Rim is wild and remote, the South Rim is teaming with activities, sites, lodging and more. Most who visit the Grand Canyon come here and for good reason, because it’s much more accessible, many roads leading here from major cities like Las Vegas or Phoenix, while to the North Rim leads just one road. One of the popular spot on the South Rim for gazing into the canyon is Moran Point, named after the painter and etcher Peter Moran. The sixth postcard depicts "the afternoon sun beyond a snow covered pinyon pine near Moran Point along the South Rim highlights Angel's Gate and Deva Temple."

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