National Parks Service – visiting, geology, ecology
Visitor Centers and Backcountry Information Centers can help onsite with trail conditions, water availability, and weather forecasts. Conditions can quickly change. Rescue is not guaranteed. Plan ahead.
Grand Canyon Conservancy
US Geological Survey
National Geographic Trails Illustrated maps
REI has buying guides, videos, and support for choosing gear.
Twilight, sunrise, and moonset times can be found at https://www.timeanddate.com.
National Weather Service has detailed 7-day forecasts and flash flood potentials – adjust the topo map for your itinerary: https://forecast.weather.gov.
Falcon Guide’s Hiking Grand Canyon National Park
Google Earth has been helpful with interpreting photos. It’s also a way to see geological changes and patterns, e.g. where creeks flow and rock layers change.
Geologic Resources Inventory Project for Grand Canyon National Park. 2001-2013 https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2203634
Abbott, L. and Cook, T. 2004. Hiking the Grand Canyon’s Geology. Seattle: The Mountaineers Books.
Billingley, G.H. 2000. Geologic Map of the Grand Canyon 30′ x 60′ Quadrangle, Coconino and Mohave Counties, Northwestern Arizona. U.S. Geological Survey. Geologic Investigations Series I-2688, version 1.0. https://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/i-2688/.
Billingsley, G.H., Goodwin, G., Nagorsen, S.E., Erdman, M.E., and Sherba, J.T., 2019, Geologic and related photographs of the Grand Canyon region (1967–2010): U.S. Geological Survey data release, accessed [February 10, 2024], at https://doi.org/10.5066/F7WS8SHW.
Blakey, R. and Ranney, W. 2008. Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau. Grand Canyon, Arizona: Grand Canyon Conservancy.
Clark, R. 2013 (work in progress). Geology of the Grand Canyon interactive map. Geology mapped by George Billingsley and others at the U.S. Geological Survey. Arizona Geological Survey. https://rclark.github.io/grand-canyon-geology/.
Graham, J. P. 2020. Grand Canyon National Park: Geologic resources inventory report. Natural Resource Report NPS/NRSS/GRD/NRR—2020/2195. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/nrr- 2279886
Huntoon, P. and Sears, J. 1975. “Bright Angel and Eminence Faults, Eastern Grand Canyon”, Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 86, p. 465-472.
Karlstrom, Karl. “Grand Canyon’s Great Unconformities”. National Parks Service. Presented October 13, 2020 at Virtual Grand Canyon GeoFest 2020 – Day 3 – minute 37:28.
Karlstrom, K., L. Crossey, A. Mathis, and C. Bowman. 2021. Telling time at Grand Canyon National Park: 2020 update. Natural Resource Report NPS/GRCA/NRR—2021/2246. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/nrr-2285173.
Karlstrom, K., & Crossey, L. (2019). Classic Rock Tours 3. Grand Canyon Geology, One Hundred and Fifty Years after John Wesley Powell: A Geology Guide for Visiting the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. Geoscience Canada, 46(4), 163–193. https://doi.org/10.12789/geocanj.2019.46.153
Ranney, Wayne. “Making Sense of the Supergroup”. National Parks Service. Presented October 13, 2020 at Virtual Grand Canyon GeoFest 2020 – Day 3 – minute 4:33. https://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/virtual-grand-canyon-geofest-2020.htm or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzkgjyIJpmU.
Timmons, J.M., and Karlstrom, K.E., editors, 2012, Grand Canyon Geology: Two Billion Years of Earth’s History: Geological Society of America Special Papers, v. 489, https://doi.org/10.1130/SPE489.
Timmons, S. 2003. Grand Canyon Geology Training Manual: Learning to Read the Pages of a Book – For Grand Canyon National Park Interpretation Division. Revised June 2009 by Allyson Mathis and Michael Quinn, Grand Canyon National Park. https://npshistory.com/publications/grca/geology-trn-man.pdf
RocksTalk 