Wonders of the world in 3D

Grand Canyon in 3D

USGS elevation · South Rim

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA

The Grand Canyon is a gorge cut by the Colorado River through the layered rock of northern Arizona. This 3D walk is built from US Geological Survey elevation data around the South Rim. Stand on the pale Kaibab limestone at the edge, look down through nearly two billion years of rock, and find the Great Unconformity, where a billion years of the record is simply missing.

Where: Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA
When built: Rocks from about 270 million years old at the rim to about 1.8 billion years at the bottom
Size: About 446 km long and about 1.8 km deep
UNESCO World Heritage: 1979

Official site

Walk Grand Canyon in 3D

A real-time 3D model, built from open elevation data and published measurements. Loads 2.8 MB when you start.

Walk it yourself. Works on this phone.

Terrain and sky from open data · stones from published measurements · tags as in the app

Hear the guide

The narrator from the app reads each tour stop. Transcripts below.

The rim · Kaibab limestone
Known0:18

The pale cap rock under your feet is about 270 million years old. The canyon below is about 1.8 km deep, and each colour band is a different ancient world: sea floor, desert dunes, river delta.
The Great Unconformity
Known0:12

Deep in the gorge, layers that differ in age by up to a billion years sit directly on top of one another. The rock in between is simply missing.

How to visit in real life

The South Rim is open all year and has the most viewpoints, the visitor centre and shuttle buses along the rim. Trails such as Bright Angel and South Kaibab drop into the canyon; going down is easy and coming back up is not. Check the National Park Service site for current conditions and closures.

Opening times and tickets change: check the official site. Official site

Open Grand Canyon in Farstep

The full site on your phone: a narrated guided tour, passport stamps, offline, and smoother graphics than a browser can give.

Narrated guided tour, stop by stop, in nine languages
Passport stamps for every hotspot and finished tour
Works offline once installed
Stonehenge free; other sites are one-time packs. No ads, no subscription.

Open in Farstep

Get it onGoogle Play Download on theApp Store

On iPhone the button opens the App Store.

Questions

How deep is the Grand Canyon?

About 1.8 km (6,000 ft) at its deepest, measured from the rim to the Colorado River.

What is the Great Unconformity?

A boundary deep in the canyon where rock layers that differ in age by up to a billion years sit directly on top of each other. The rock that once lay between them was worn away.