The Canyon is an overwhelming experience, and nothing can prepare a visitor for the sight; superlatives often fail to do the landscape justice. The Grand Canyon is a massive canyon carved over several million years by the Colorado River. Grand Canyon National Park boasts an elevation change of nearly 7,000 feet (2130 m) from Point Imperial (at nearly 9,000 feet or 2740 m) to the banks of Lake Mead (at just over 2,000 feet or 610 m). The canyon itself is, from rim to river over a mile (1610 m) deep. In spots the rock layers exposed in the canyon display over two ''billion'' years of geologic history. There is no way that mere words can describe the place. You just have to see it.The park was founded as Grand Canyon National Monument in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt, and became a national park in 1919. Today the park contains over 1.2 million acres (490,000 ha), slightly less than the entire state of Delaware (state)|Delaware, and in 2004 received more than 4.3 million visitors. http://wikitravel.org/en/Grand Canyon