Trail of Time - A Million Years per Step

Photo: Erin Whittaker, National Park Service, public domain (cropped)

A stop on Grand Canyon South Rim, a free self-guided tour.

You are walking through time. On the Trail of Time, which opened in 2010, each meter of path stands for one million years of Earth history. Markers in the pavement count off the years, and rock samples from the canyon sit beside the trail at the point that matches their age.

Start near Yavapai and you walk backward from today. The carving of the canyon itself, roughly five or six million years, takes only a few strides. The age of dinosaurs passes next, and after about 270 meters you reach the time when the Kaibab Limestone settled in a warm, shallow sea. Every layer in the canyon wall lies ahead of you.

Near the Village end you arrive at the Vishnu basement rocks, which began as mud, sand and volcanic ash in an ancient ocean and were squeezed and heated deep underground into schist about 1.75 billion years ago. Stop at a sample, touch it, and look out to find the same rock in the canyon.

Getting here: The Trail of Time follows the Rim Trail west from Yavapai toward the Village; this point is about halfway along.

Did you know?: The trail covers about two billion years in about two kilometers, so a ten-minute stroll spans more time than the entire history of animals on Earth.

Photo op: Crouch beside one of the rock samples and frame it with the matching layer in the canyon wall behind it.

Nearby: No facilities along this stretch; restrooms and water at Yavapai behind you or Verkamp's Visitor Center ahead.

More on Wikipedia: Geology of the Grand Canyon area · Vishnu Basement Rocks · Kaibab Limestone

Trail of Time - A Million Years per Step

Stops on this tour