What is the largest canyon in the United States, located in Arizona?

What is the largest canyon in the United States, located in Arizona? The answer is the Grand Canyon.

Carved primarily by the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon stretches for roughly 278 river miles across northwestern Arizona. Its walls expose layers of rock representing nearly two billion years of geological history, while the canyon itself reached much of its modern form through river erosion and uplift over the past several million years.

The canyon is commonly described as about one mile deep, although depth varies by location. It can reach approximately 18 miles across from rim to rim, and the river at its bottom is far below the South and North Rims. Grand Canyon National Park, created in 1919, protects more than 1.2 million acres around the gorge.

“Largest” can mean different things when comparing canyons, so the Grand Canyon is not the world’s deepest or longest canyon by every measurement. In ordinary U.S. landmark trivia, however, Grand Canyon is the canonical answer. It is also distinct from the smaller Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Arizona’s many narrower slot canyons.