PBS NewsHour, 

Grand Canyon May Be 60 Million Years Older Than Previously Thought:

A newly published study renews an old debate about the age of the Grand Canyon, positing a possibility that the geographical formation could be tens of millions of years older than current wisdom suggests, dating back to the time of dinosaurs. Margaret Warner talks to science correspondent Miles O'Brien about its significance.

www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

An interesting debate has now started over the age of the Grand Canyon, perhaps a paradigm shift?

Transcript

MARGARET WARNER: Finally tonight: Just how old is the Grand Canyon?

The conventional wisdom holds that this natural wonder of the world was shaped by the Colorado River about five or six million years ago. But there's been a long-running debate over whether it's much older. And, yesterday, researchers published a study in the journal "Science," arguing these majestic formations were formed by two much older rivers cutting through the landscape some 70 million years ago. That was during the age of the dinosaurs. 

MILES O’BRIEN: Yes, it's a big deal.

And there is a big debate in the scientific community right now over it, Margaret.

When you look at the Grand Canyon, as a layperson -- we have been there and see it -- you would say, well, clearly, the Colorado River formed this over many millions of years. And we know the Colorado River is between five and six million years old, no scientific debate there. There is plenty of evidence on that.

So, you would say, well, the canyon must be that old. Well, this new paper which came out -- Becky Flowers of the University of Colorado, along with Ken Farley at Caltech, took a series of readings on the eastern and western portions of the river, which measured a helium isotope which stops escaping at about 70 degrees. You can tell how the rocks have been rising out of center of the earth and sort of pinpoint where the depth would be.

And they came to the conclusion that there was a Grand Canyon there some 70 million years ago before the river. Well, how would that be?

Well, they say there were actually two rivers, one that flowed one direction 70 million years ago, another that flowed the other direction 50 million years ago, and that made a canyon, which now the Colorado River is using. Make sense?...

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/july-dec12/canyon_11-30.html

State lawmakers want to take back the Grand Canyon

Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Arizona lawmakers want to take back the Grand Canyon and use one of the seven natural wonders of the world to generate more revenue for the state.

Photo by, Michael Quinn, NPS

So, California one-day will "take back" Yosemite National Park or will Utah take back Zion National Park. ...? 

For those short sighted state law makers: "In every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations." Iroquois proverb

Leonardo
Across Arizona Tours
www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Arizona-Claims-Grand-Canyon-as-Fires-Fuel-3971986.php#ixzz2ApZA4YEO

Obama to Designate César E. Chávez National Monument

“César Chávez gave a voice to poor and disenfranchised workers everywhere,” said President Obama. “La Paz was at the center of some of the most significant civil rights moments in our nation’s history, and by designating it a national monument, Chávez’ legacy will be preserved and shared to inspire generations to come.”

Environment News Service (http://s.tt/1oUfQ)

My father was a field worker along with his father, brothers and sisters. It these hands that not only feeds our families, but they do so under hard conditions. 

WASHINGTON, DC, October 1, 2012 (ENS) – On October 8, as Americans celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, President Barack Obama will travel to California to establish the César E. Chávez National Monument in honor of the late labor and human rights leader.

This monument is the 398th site included in the U.S. National Park System, and the first to recognize the work of a contemporary Latino American...

Environment News Service (http://s.tt/1oUfQ)

Read more at: http://ens-newswire.com/2012/10/01/obama-to-designate-cesar-e-chavez-national-monument/

Arizona offers tourists much more than the Grand Canyon

The nation's sixth-largest state, once known primarily for gold and silver mining and a certain shootout that involved Wyatt Earp, has become a major tourism destination. Much of the activity is centered around the capital and largest city, Phoenix.
By Jay Berman

www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

Arizona is a huge state and one must spend months if not years to truly see all of its national & state parks, citys and landmarks. Plan on making several long visits to the Grand Canyon State! 

Leonardo

Arizona has more going for it than a canyon in the north and cactus in the south. California's eastern neighbor is celebrating its centennial, and that means a proliferation of fairs, parades and the like, as well as square dance festivals and at least one cowboy poetry conference.

What do visitors do once they've arrived? Golf is near the top of the list, with nearly 200 courses in the greater Phoenix area. Biking and hiking are also popular. Native American culture is everywhere, and families with children often wind up at Old West sites and wildlife parks...

Jay Berman is a Manhattan Beach freelance writer.

Los Angeles Daily News

http://www.dailynews.com/ci_20719386/arizona-offers-tourists-much-more-than-grand-canyon?source=most_viewed

Hotel Palomar Phoenix is Open!

"You just never know where a Kimpton Hotel might rise up. Starting today, we’re spreading our wings in Phoenix. We hope you visit us at Hotel Palomar Phoenix, which is opening its doors in the heart of downtown at CityScape..." 

• Posted by Kelly Aiglon, Blog Manager
• 
  

www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

Phoenix, now has a beautiful downtown hotel in the true heart of Downtown Phoenix! Come with me today to see the Hotel Palomar Phoenix - A Kimpton Hotel!

Leonardo

We hope you visit us at Hotel Palomar Phoenix, which is opening its doors in the heart of downtown at CityScape, a new hub of shops, restaurants, bars and entertainment venues. Across the street is Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks; and US Airways Center, an event mecca and where the Phoenix Suns do their thing. No doubt about it – it’s an exciting place to be and we’re eager to help make your travels more relaxing and fun...

http://www.lifeissuite.com/2012/06/hotel-palomar-phoenix-is-open/

Four Corners visitors can now use map, website

Few areas of the United States possess as many national parks and monuments, ancient American Indian sites and scenery as the Four Corners of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.

Places such as Mesa Verde and Canyonlands national parks; Aztec, Hovenweep, Natural Bridges, Canyon de Chelly and Chaco Canyon national monuments; and Monument Valley combine with the culture of the Navajo and Hopi tribes to make a visit to the area a fascinating journey.

The Salt Lake Tribune

First Published Jun 01 2012 02:23 pm • Last Updated Jun 01 2012 07:12 pm

It's good to see these four states launching a join effort to promote this National Park & Monument region of our country.

Leonardo

www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

The four states are launching a major four-state geotourism initiative Saturday at Aztec Ruins National Monument. Geotourism is defined as tourism that sustains or enhances the geographic character of a place, its environment, culture, aesthetics and the well being of residents. It’s a collaboration between National Geographic, the Utah/Colorado Trail of the Ancients Scenic Byway, area nonprofit organizations and state, local and federal government agencies.

The event celebrates the release of two new products designed to promote the area.

National Geographic is releasing a full-color, waterproof, tear-resistant map called "The Four Corners Region —Trail of the Ancients." The map provides directions to historic structures and archeological sites, scenic landscapes, wildlife viewing areas, trails, outdoor recreation, local cuisine, festivals, artists and river guides.

The second product is the Four Corners Region — Trail of the Ancients" interactive website atwww.fourcornersgeotourism.com. This is also a National Geographic production.

"My office and the Utah Office of Tourism are very excited to have the branding of the National Geographic ‘yellow box,’" said Charlie DeLorme, director of the San Juan County Economic Development and Visitor Services. "The map will guide visitors to and through our region, which is one of the world’s most stunning destinations, rich in diversity and cultural heritage. Years of hard work have culminated in this excellent map and given us another implement in the toolbox we use to attract visitors."

Tom Wharton

Petrified Forest National Park

Traveler's Checklist: Petrified Forest National Park

"an overlooked gem in the National Park System, in part perhaps owing to its location in northeastern Arizona, or possibly because there are no in-park accommodations, or maybe because the park shuts down at sundown..."

Submitted by Kurt Repanshek 

Photo From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The best times to catch the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert is a few hours before sunrise & sunset!

Leonardo

"If you're interested in photography, you just might want to consider which entrance you pass through if, for instance, you want to capture the warm afternoon light being soaked up by the Painted Desert. Regardless of which entrance you choose, here are some tips to help you get the most out of your visit to Petrified Forest National Park:

* Do not pass either the Painted Desert Visitor Center or the Rainbow Forest Museum. Within their doors you'll find reams of information on the park: maps, plenty of shelves with helpful books on geology and history, T-shirts to remember your visitor, deadly Jigsaw puzzles depicting colorful settings of petrified wood, and, of course, a place to stamp your Passport to Your National Parks. And take the opportunity to top off your water bottle!

Spend any time in the Rainbow Forest Museum and you'll learn about the huge reptiles that once trod the landscape that now looks so desolate..."

 by Kurt Repanshek on April 16, 2012 - 1:29am

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2012/04/travelers-checklist-petrified-forest-national-park9744

A new Grand Canyon Watershed National Monument?

If you could be president of the United States for one day, what would you do? I'd probably want to sneak in some batting practice at Yankee Stadium, quickly, because even for the most powerful person in the world, a single day isn't a lot of time to -- as the late Steve Jobs put it -- "make a dent in the universe."

The president, however, has a unique power. When Congress passed the Antiquities Act 106 years ago, it gave the commander in chief sole authority to designate public land as a national monument.

From Sierra Club Executive Director Mike Brune

www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.

Ancient Indian Proverb

The nation and the president’s affection for the Grand Canyon region as national treasure is clear.  President Obama has an opportunity to burnish his legacy around the canyon by designating areas around the North Kaibab Plateau in Arizona as a new Grand Canyon Watershed National Monument.  Doing so would provide vital protection for important sources of groundwater, protect habitat for mule deer, preserve 22 sensitive species (many of which occur nowhere else in the world), promote and protect local tourism economies and jobs, and more...

Guest column by Athan Manuel, Director of the Sierra Club's Lands Protection Program.

http://sierraclub.typepad.com/layoftheland/2012/01/protecting-the-grand-canyon-an-obama-lands-legacy.html

Arizona's has a new state parks director, Bryan Martyn

After a four-month national search for Arizona's new state parks director, Bryan Martyn bested the competition and will take over the helm May 1.

by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez 

www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

Tourism Works for Arizona and is our largest industry. Thus, the role of state parks director is critical. A poll last year revealed that many people thought that most of our states parks were closed due to budget shortfalls. I wish Mr. Martyn much success get the word out that our parks are open and ready to be visited. 

Leonardo

by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez - Apr. 28, 2012 09:27 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com


Though he has no experience running such a massive department, he said he will fall back on his ability to foster relationships with other leaders to keep the ailing parks system afloat.
The parks system has 30 state parks. Many forged private relationships to stay open after state budget cuts threatened to close them. With a budget of $19.5 million, the parks department employs 240 full-time and part-time employees, a spokeswoman said...


With the 30 parks we have as assets, we need to let the world know they're there. .... Right now, people don't know that they actually do own 30 state parks out there...

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2012/04/26/20120426arizona-parks-director-ready-challenge.html#ixzz1tSMBMppP

Sedona, Arizona named one of the most Beautiful Sacred Places Around the World

Sedona, Arizona has long drawn people interested in healing, spirituality, mysticism, and metaphysics, who come for more than just the dramatic, red-rock beauty. The area is famous for its vortexes, powerful centers of kinetic energy that can have a deep effect on those who visit them; there are four main ones spread around town, including one near the airport. 
By Sandra Ramani,

www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

As a kid growing up in Arizona. I thought canyons were all a mile deep, catus grew 50 feet tall, and cliffs were red as they are in Sedona and the entire world. Then I drove through Texas!  : (

Leonardo

Vortexes, Arizona

By Sandra Ramani, Wednesday, Apr 4, 2012, 4:00 AM

Read more: http://www.budgettravel.com/feature/sacred-places-vacation-ideas,8497/#ixzz1rgqpQ5aB

Sedona, Arizona has long drawn people interested in healing, spirituality, mysticism, and metaphysics, who come for more than just the dramatic, red-rock beauty. The area is famous for its vortexes, powerful centers of kinetic energy that can have a deep effect on those who visit them; there are four main ones spread around town, including one near the airport. 

The ancient Native American Yavapai people knew about these centers, and celebrated this "Great Mother" energy with petroglyph paintings and sacred dwellings. Today, visitors can easily walk or hike to the four spots (the one in Boynton Canyon is among the most popular), and once there, can meditate or just soak up the good vibes. Many feel recharged and uplifted after visiting a vortex, and some guests even report having visions or deeper experiences while in town.

Read more: http://www.budgettravel.com/feature/sacred-places-vacation-ideas,8497/#ixzz1rgqP1TS4

Navajo’s Planned Grand Canyon Development Draws Concerns

"Some of the strongest concerns about the development plans have come from the Hopi Tribe. With the help of the National Park Service, the Hopi maintain, use and protect a Hopi Salt Trail leading to the Colorado. The Confluence is also the site of their Sipapuni, or place of emergence..."

By Anne Minard March 30, 2012

Photo above by NPS Photo by Erin Whittaker

www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

In 1966 the Sierra Club exclaimed, "This time it's the Grand Canyon they want to flood," and asked, "Should we also flood the Sistine Chapel so tourists can get nearer the ceiling?" Perhaps the same can be said today when I comes to the development of this scenic & most sacred areas to the Hopi people?

Leonardo 

The jubilant announcement of a Navajo Nation plan to develop the East Rim of the Grand Canyon for tourism is getting a chilly reception from tribal residents of the area, the Hopi tribe and Grand Canyon National Park.

The president signed a memorandum of understanding on February 17 with the Phoenix-based development group Confluence Partners, LLC, formerly Fulcrum, LLC.  Early plans include a resort hotel, restaurant, a tramway leading to a gondola and an RV park. 

The development will be set within sight of the place where the Little Colorado River flows into the Colorado River, a place known as the Confluence and considered sacred to the Hopi, the Navajo and other tribes.

“It’s beautiful,” Shelly said. “It’s beautiful if we can get it done. It’s going to bring money, and it’s going to bring visitors here. It’s going to be something to see, something to visit.”

But as word has gotten out about the proposed development, concerns have arisen from both Navajo and non-Navajo neighbors...

And Kuwanwisiwma said part of the sentiment at Hopi includes dismay at what he calls a “political irony” on the heels of vehement public protests by the Navajo and other tribes against snowmaking for a recreational ski area on sacred mountains near Flagstaff, Arizona.

“On one hand, the Navajo Nation is very visible in trying to protect the San Francisco Peaks, saying it’s sacred land,” he said. “On the other hand, they should consider this area very important.”

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/03/30/navajos-planned-grand-canyon-development-draws-concerns-105638

It is time to Stopping Mining in the Grand Canyon?

“The Grand Canyon’s watershed is a complex groundwater flow system that extends miles north and south of the National Park’s boundary,” reports the non-profit Wilderness Society. “If contaminated by uranium mining, those aquifers would be impossible to clean up—a point acknowledged by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
From: www.HealthNewsDigest.com 


Just imagine having this sign replaced with the words: Welcome to Grand Canyon NP, do not drink the water.
Leonardo

www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Yes, in January 2012 Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that the federal government was prohibiting new mining claims for the next two decades across more than a million acres of public lands surrounding Grand Canyon National Park...

In the face of increased uranium mining in the area, environmental advocates have been pushing for the prohibition to stave off the industrialization of the iconic wild lands flanking the park, fearing that new roads, mines, exploratory drilling, power lines and truck traffic would compromise the natural experience most visitors seek, let alone directly pollute and alter the region’s fragile ecology. Pre-existing claims can continue to operate in the parcels in question, but they will have only about a tenth of the surface impacts and a third of the water usage of what mining in the area would cause without the ban on new claims...

Of course, the mining and uranium industries in the U.S. are not lying down so easily. In February the National Mining Association, a trade group representing the interests of the U.S. mining industry, filed suit in federal court to try to overturn the prohibition. While the challenge works its way through the legal system, environmentalists can breathe easy as the ban remains in effect. But only time will tell how long they can keep resource extractors at bay in and around our national parks, especially in light of the lucrative revenues that can be made from uranium mining, logging and other destructive practices.

CONTACTS: Wilderness Society, www.wilderness.org; National Mining Association, www.nma.org.

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

Navajo Nation plans large-scale Grand Canyon development

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) -- Generations of Navajo families have grazed livestock on a remote but spectacular mesa that overlooks the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers. This is the East Rim of the majestic Grand Canyon -- the last with no significant development.
by FELICIA FONSECA


It hard to imagine resorts, hotels, spas and RV parks among the red rocks of the eastern flank of the Grand Canyon yet the push to "improve" the landscape seems to be moving forward.
Leonardo

by FELICIA FONSECA

AP Posted on March 24, 2012 at12:20 PM

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) -- Generations of Navajo families have grazed livestock on a remote but spectacular mesa that overlooks the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers. This is the East Rim of the majestic Grand Canyon -- the last with no significant development.

But ancestral tradition and the tranquility of the landscape could be subject to change if the Navajo government's plans are realized for a resort and aerial tramway that would ferry tourists from cliff tops to water's edge.

The vast 27,000 square-mile Navajo reservation abuts Grand Canyon National Park, and tribal leaders say they're losing out on tourist dollars and jobs for their people by leaving the land undeveloped. Navajo President Ben Shelly recently signed a nonbinding agreement that lists the gondola, a restaurant, a half-mile river walk, a resort hotel and spa and RV park among the attractions of a proposed development that he says will bring up to $70 million a year in revenue to the tribe and 2,000 jobs to the impoverished reservation.

"We want people from all over the world to visit Navajo land and the Grand Canyon," Shelly said. "We have many of the world's wonders in our midst."

True enough, but the National Park Service already is voicing objections to the large-scale development on its eastern flank. Environmental organizations and some Navajos who call the area home also oppose the project.

"This is just one more thing that is going to chip away at the solitude of the area, and it's really not the appropriate type of development for that area," said Alicyn Gitlin of the Sierra Club...

http://www.kmov.com/news/national/Navajo-Nation-plans-large-scale-Grand-Canyon-development-144091076.html