Grand Canyon National Park - Dynamic Earth (U.S. National Park Service)

Grand Canyon is a premire classroom for students to learn about geology.

This five-hour program helps students unravel the geologic story of how Grand Canyon formed. We meet your bus at 9 a.m. at Park Headquarters and, after a bathroom break, travel 30 minutes to Hermit's Rest to begin the program. After a hands-on examination of the sedimentary rock layers, we hike a quarter-mile into the canyon to explore a fossil site. Following the lunch break, student continue their studies with a two-hour, one-mile hike along an unpaved portion of the canyon rim trail to Pima Point. The program ends at 2 p.m. and your bus returns to the starting point by about 2:30 p.m.
During the program your class learns about the the three rock families, geologic time, the canyon's rock layers, plate tectonics and the uplift of the Colorado Plateau and how the canyon was carved. In addition, through quiet reflection, your students have the opportunity to form a personal connection while exploring what the canyon means to them.