Grand Canyon

This enormous ancient gorge is as iconic as it gets. The bountiful breathtaking behemoth has been inhabited by tribes for over 12 thousand years. It's still a sacred place nestled in the southwest of the United States straddling over 440 KM in length and 30 KM in width. People who have journeyed there have been left in awe by its jaw dropping size, not to mention the wealth of wildlife, fauna, and activities available at your fingertips. All aboard The Grand Canyon Express! We'll take a gander at the gargantuan Grand Canyon on this week's episode of FYI! 

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this enormous ancient Gorge is as iconic as it gets the Bountiful breathtaking Behemoth has been inhabited by tribes for over 12,000 years it's still a sacred Place nestled in the southwest of the United States straddling over 440 km in length and 30 km in width people who have journeyed there have been left in awe by its jaw-dropping size not to mention the wealth of wildlife fauna and activities available at your fingertips all aboard the Grand Canyon Express we he'll take a gander at the gargantuan Grand Canyon on this week's episode of FYI welcome to for your info English you got it you[Applause][Music][Applause][Music] got hello hello hello and welcome to another exciting edition of FYI for your English the topic based show where you learn about anything and everything and remember if you have any suggestions for upcoming episodes drop me a line I'm really easy to find on social media or you can go over to my website Alberto Alonso docomo remember I have a daily radio show on vau radio it's called the show with no name and it's on the air live Monday through Friday that's 10 extra hours of exciting English every week just go to wherever you listen to podcasts wherever you're listening to this podcast and search for the show with no name and my name Alberto Alonso hit follow and start learning and laughing with us every single day in fact I'd like to send a shout out to all my show with no namers many of my show with no namers are also fyers well whether you listen to one or both thank you so much for tuning in and let's enjoy today's amazing adventure together let's start off with the intro I started out by saying this enormous ancient Gorge and just be careful with that word ancient you don't know how many times I've heard students pronounce it ancient it's not ancient it's ancient and what is a Gorge well a Gorge is a big canyon you say Canon garganta desilo it says here see you guys aren't the only ones learning my Spanish has improved Leaps and Bounds and Leaps and Bounds means tremendously so I hope the same is happening with you but the other way around in English so pronounce it with me ancient this enormous ancient Gorge is as iconic as it gets and you need to know this structure as it gets there's a very famous movie starring Jack Nicholson called As Good As It Gets does it ring a bell As Good As It Gets there's a little doggy in it you call itos well that translation of the title is as good as it gets me so in this case I said it's as iconic as it gets say it's a great structure to know and that is an awesome movie if I may say so myself then I said the Bountiful breathtaking Behemoth lots of bees going on over there well Bountiful is another way of saying abundant or plentiful breathtaking is amazing and Behemoth is huge I know we've looked at that one perhaps it was in the Titanic episode I said it has been inhabited by tribes for over 12,000 years and it continues to be a sacred place you can say sacred or holy and it's nestled in the southwest of the United States enclavado Reco I think you would say in Spanish it straddles over 440 km in length and to straddle is to extend to span is another one we looked at that one in the Brooklyn Bridge episode well it straddles over 440 km in length and 30 km in width and how deep is it its depth is 1,857 M just the numbers themselves are breathtaking but as we'll find out later on it isn't the biggest canyon in the world it may be the most popular canyon in the world but it isn't the biggest then I said people who have journeyed there have been left in awe just think of the word awesome aom broso so if you're left in awe you're sitting there going a hey I never thought of that maybe it's because it's the sound you make but people are left in awe not only by its jaw-dropping size and I guess that makes sense your jaw is your mandibula if your jaw drops you are shocked but it's also colorful and there's also a wealth of Wildlife and a wealth is an abundance and don't forget about the fauna and all the activities available at your fingertips at Al and then I said all aboard the Grand Canyon Express yes there is a train in the Grand Canyon but we'll talk a little bit about that later cuz today we're going to take a gander and to take a gander chumo at the gargantuan Grand Canyon and if you haven't noticed yet you guys call iton De colado so I guess it's located in Colorado it is located in Arizona in the United States so then why is it called the colado in Spanish well think of the river that runs through it the Colorado River we already talked about its impressive Dimensions it's also very Steep and when something is steep that means there's an incline I think you say mucha pendente and that Colorado River we just talked about is responsible for this amazing Canyon this gorge in the United States it was the Colorado River that carved this Gorge and just to give you an idea of the sheer size I don't know how familiar you are with American states but the Grand Canyon National Park is bigger than the entire State of Rhode Island but again it's not the biggest in the world we'll take a look at the biggest in the world plus more fun facts about the Grand Canyon we'll also take a look at the fauna the different life zones the dark side fun facts I'll tell you all about my experience there and as always we'll take a look at some idiomatic expressions but all of that is in the bonus episode and just a quick reminder guys there are two episodes every week and you can get bonus PDF documents with all the vocabulary and expressions included and if you want to go deeper you can join us in our higher levels our super duper students and our Interstellar students they get a weekly private class with me where we go over all the key vocabulary and they give their opinion on each episode and if you're in our Interstellar level well then you get all of that stuff and a private class with me it's a deal a bargain a steal call it what you will but I don't know what what you're waiting for if you're hungry for more and you want classes with me then join my Curious Community you can go over to patreon.com Alberto Alonso and take a look around you can also write to me and I can give you some samples but whatever you do join us we are having a blast learning and laughing together and I'd like to send a shout out to all my patrons especially my super duper students lenina Javier pako Roberto Jose Maria and Mila and don't forget about my Interstellar students the ones who have a private class with me every month Gman Issa bako David and Edgard keep up the good work and if you guys want to join us go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso and find out what you're missing out on and if I'm not mistaken there's a free way to join us now as well now I don't think you'll have access to all the content but it's a good way to stay in the loop either way go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso and let's continue to learn and laugh together now where were we right the Grand Canyon in Arizona it is one of the world's Premier natural attractions and it attracts over 5 million visitors per year 83% of those visitors are from the United States and it seems like the park is getting more and more popular every year but where did it all start well that is debated for a long time they thought the Grand Canyon was 6 million years old but there was a recent study that was done that dates it back to 70 million years ago wow there's a bigk margin for error there so somewhere between 6 million and 70 million years old who's counting no matter how you slice it or dice it that is old and as we said it was formed by the Colorado River now we do know when the area was first inhabited though it's been inhabited for thousands of years now the original inhabitants were Native Americans they built settlements within the canyon and the many caves and in the intro I said something about a holy or sacred site well the peblo people and I don't mean town I mean Pueblo people consider the Grand Canyon a holy site and they even made pilgrimages to it and we'll see what it means to many other people as well I guess it means something to everybody who experiences it such as the first European or at least the first European known to have viewed the Grand Canyon and do you know where he was[Music][Applause][Music] from he was from ESP that's right Captain Garcia Lopez de cardinas he arrived in 15 1940 under the orders of conistor Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and he was tasked to search for the fabled Seven Cities of siola well he didn't find the Seven Cities of siola but they did come across the Grand Canyon and in their report they noted that some of the rocks in the Grand Canyon were quote unquote bigger than the great tower of Lala they were led by the hopy people the hopy Indians who lived there but many Reports say that the Hy people were reluctant to lead them down to the river but they were the first ones to get a glimpse at its glory and interestingly enough no Europeans visited the canyon again for more than 200 years the next European to reach the canyon supposedly was a guy named James Ohio Patty he was with a group of American Trappers and mountain men and it's reported that they were in the canyon in 1826 so think about that 1540 to 1826 no European had set foot on this amazing treasure somebody who was an advocate for it was American president Theodore Roosevelt he was vital in the preservation of the Grand Canyon area and he visited it on numerous occasions to hunt and just to take in the scenery and in 1903 Teddy Roosevelt was at the Grand Canyon and as I said he was a hunter and an avid Outdoorsman and he was inspired when he was there to establish the Grand Canyon Game Preserve now game in this case has has to do with hunting it's not like game in sports and this was on November 28th 1906 this was the first effort to try and conserve this area and what they did was they eradicated the Wolves Eagles mountain lions and other predators and it was not easy to get this turned into a US National Monument or a US national park so let's go in order so I don't get lost Roosevelt with some of the members of his conservation group an association called The Boon and Crockett Club helped form the national parks Association now this Association lobbied for what was called the Antiquities Act of 1906 and this was really important because this would give the president the power to create national monuments now once that Act was passed Roosevelt immediately added the adjacent National Forest lands and he redesignated the area as a US National Monument that was on January 11th 1908 that was 5 years after that visit there and there were many opponents opponents from industry such as miners they blocked the efforts to recl classify the monument as a national park for 11 years they didn't want anybody cutting in on their action and finally after a bitter battle Grand Canyon National Park was established as the 17th US national park by an act of Congress and it was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on February 25th 1919 and I want to go back to that mind thing I was talking about there mining is a major problem it's not a minor problem minor Peno minor Mino okay okay I'll stop well yes mining seems to be a problem because between the years 2003 and 2011 over 2,200 mining claims had been requested adjacent to the canyon including claims for Uranium mines now the critics of uranium mining are concerned that uranium will leech into the water table or to seep into the water table and that would therefore contaminate the Colorado River and the Colorado River supplies drinking water for up to 18 million Americans so it's always that battle between preserving nature and turning it into a factory I know which one I'm voting for let's talk a little bit about the weather and ecosystem the Canyon's ecosystem was permanently changed after the construction of the Glenn Canyon Dam this was in 1963 and a dam is something that holds back water what happened was the average flood levels dropped from 85,000 to 8,000 cubic feet per second so sure with the absence of natural flooding sandbars and beaches started to erode and invasive species began to displace the native species so that really threw off the ecosystem and there was something fishy going on fishy means Soso but also I'm going to tell you something that has to do with fish now all right I'm just trying to be funny again well the Colorado River is a uniquely difficult habitat for fish there's heavy silt frequent floods and temperatures ranging from extreme heat in the summer to subfreezing in the winter and as a result only eight fish species are native to the Grand Canyon the cool thing is six of those are only found in the Colorado River but it isn't the ideal place for fish but don't worry there's tons of other fauna and we're going to take a look at that in a little bit let's talk a little bit about the temperatures first temperatures can vary wildly throughout the year so you can expect summer highs within the inner Gorge to be around 38° that's Celsius that's 100° fah and winter minimums sometimes fall below 18 de C so 38° to 18° below zero that is quite a range and visitors are often caught off guard by these potentially extreme conditions the Canyon's rims have a very high altitude which can lead to very unpleasant side effects side effects such as dehydration Sunburn and hypothermia and what is that Rim thing I was talking about well the rim is The Edge and there are two rims you have the north rim where temperatures are generally lower and the south rim where obviously they higher heavy rains are common on both rims on the North and the South Rim during the summer months and I remember when I visited we were told to go the south rim because in the winter months there are road closures and it's impossible to get through the north rim and if you make a mistake and go to the wrong long Rim it's about 320 km away from the other Rim it takes about 4 hours by car so make sure you go to the right Rim obviously it depends on the season and we're going to look at some top tips in the bonus episode as well plus I'll tell you more about my experiences let's look at some amazing activities you can do in and around the Grand Canyon now obviously you can just go there and sightsee you don't even have to get out of your car you can drive around and just take it in from your car playing some classical music or what have you now that's not the best way to see it but it is one way that you can see it but other activities include rafting hiking running and helicopter tours which are extremely popular then there's the Grand Canyon ultra marathon this is for my hardcore students I dedicate this one to Bor to Iron Man I'm sure he would love to do this it's a 126 km race that's over 24 hours long it sounds hardcore also the floor of the valley is accessible by foot by mule by boat or raft and you can hike down to the river and back up to the rim in the same day but Park officials discourage that they say it's too much for one day it's steep there are rocky trails and many changes in elevation plus heat exhaustion because the temperatures at the bottom are much higher and rescues are done almost daily even though they take all the necessary precautions people always go off the beaten path and in life it's good to go off the beaten path but not in a treacherous area where you could fall to your death I remember when I was sitting on the ledge my knees were shaking now what about camping by the way we have an FYI episode on camping if you haven't listened to it well camping on the North and South rims is generally restricted to established campgrounds you can't just park your car and you know camp out anywhere there are many campsites all throughout the park and as I said before if you're looking for ones you can go to all year then you want to look at the south rim but there are also campsites on the north rim just bear in mind they'll be closed in the winter also all overnight camping below the rim requires a Backcountry permit each year the Grand Canyon National Park receives approximately 30,000 requests for Backcountry permits the park usually issues around 13,000 of those permits and close to 40,000 people camp overnight in this amazing National Park Issa that one's for you I know you love camping and you would love to camp out for weeks in this National Park and that's the thing you can spend a day there or you could spend two weeks there and you'd still still be discovering new things every day it just depends on your time constraints also tourists who are looking for a more vertical perspective more of a bird's eyee view well they can go skydiving hey a shout out to Carmen also you can board helicopters as we said before and you can take small little planes in Boulder Las Vegas and Phoenix those are nearby airports and it has its own airport it's called Grand Canyon National Park airport it is near the South Rim but Scenic flights are no longer allowed to fly within 460 M of the rim because there was a terrible crash in the 1990s but we'll look at all that stuff when we look at the dark side something that has brought a lot of new tourists is the Grand Canyon Skywalk this seethrough walkway that lets you walk out over the canyon it's not for the faint of heart but in 2007 the hoolaai tribe opened the glass bottom Grand Canyon Skywalk the Skywalk is about 400 km by Road from Grand Canyon Village on the south rim and it has attracted thousands of visitors a year many of them coming from Las Vegas also in 2016 skydiving at the Grand Canyon became possible with the first Grand Canyon skydiving operation opening up at Grand Canyon National Park airport hey Carman that sounds like a good trip but not all their plans saw the light of day many plans fell through for example in 2014 a developer announced plans to build a multimedia complex and they they wanted to call it the Grand Canyon Escalade there would be shops an IMAX theater hotels a gondola a river walk and thank God good taste prevailed and they didn't turn it into a strip mall on October 31st 2017 the Navajo National Council voted against the project and whether you visited the Grand Canyon or not every time you go back there's more to see it's constantly changing just think of the shape it's ever changing in fact it's never stopped changing and it continues to be shaped by the Colorado River the wind and the rain and all the elements now you might not be able to see those little changes you've got one of the most amazing national parks in the world we're going to wrap up here with a little quote a quote by by Edward Morgan Forster he was an English author best known for his novels A Room With a View Howard's end and a Passage to India and this is a nature-based quote he said what is the good of your stars and trees your sunrise and the wind if they do not enter into our daily lives I hope you guys have enjoyed this part of our adventure and I hope you'll join us in the bonus episode of today's[Applause][Applause][Music][Music] fyr