A Geology Exhibition
The Trail of Time at Grand Canyon
Geoscience Education in the National Parks:

The Trail of Time is an interpretive walking timeline trail that focuses on Grand Canyon vistas and rocks to guide visitors to ponder, explore, and understand the magnitude of geologic time and the stories encoded by Grand Canyon rock layers and landscapes.

Grand Canyon, AZ. A geologically young canyon carved by the Colorado River through much older rock strata. Grand Canyon vistas provide a spectacular window into geologic history.

Can you locate the Great Unconformity in this view from Desert View on the left?

A protoype Trail of Time: one meter = one million years! The heartbeat of Planet Earth....stroll along the South Rim through the geologic history of the Grand Canyon.

The actual Grand Canyon layers are matched to their counterparts on display at the South Rim in the Canyon View Information plaza (from the rim down: the Kaibab, Toroweap, Coconino, Hermit, Supai, Redwall, Muav, and Bright Angel are shown. the Tapeats sits just beneath the broad Tonto Platform).

About this site:

Both the web site and the geoscience educational project are Under Construction! Links to documents pertaining to the Trail of Time Exhibition are at the bottom of the page. Dr. Karl Karlstrom and Dr. Laura Crossey at the University of New Mexico, and colleagues as UMass (Dr. Michael Williams), ASU (Dr. Steve Semken), NAU, and Partners at GCNP continue to develop the concept. Based on a long history of geologic research in Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau, this project has grown over the past decade. Funded with seed money from the National Science Foundation (both the Geoscience Education and Informal Science Education programs), our plan has been refined and sharpened. Reflecting the diverse and specialized contributions of many geoscientists, the geoscience educational project has grown to include interpretive experts (including the NPS interpretive staff at GCNP and regional office in Denver) as well as professional exhibit designers and evaluators.

What is the Trail of Time?

The Trail is a paved 4.6 km trail scaled such that one meter corresponds to one million years of earth history. Extending through time, visitors will gain an understanding of the dimensions of geologic time, as well as appreciate, at appropriate points and vistas along the trail, key components of the geologic history of the region. The concept of a scaled walking trail along the heavily-visited South Rim to provide sorely-needed components to the geoscience interpretation at GCNP was originally proposed in 1995. Since that time, slow but steady refinements and modifications have been made, recognizing both the needs of the Park under the strictures of the General Management Plan, as well as incorporating innovative and content-grounded approaches for visitors.

A portion of the Trail as conceived in 1995

The current version of the exhibition includes the full scaled trail of earth history (the 'Grand Canyon Trail of Time' and the 'Early Earth Trail') as well as an expanded section that moves visitors through a series of changing time/distance scales (the 'Canyon Trail') that allows for a shift from the daily human perspective (years) to decades, hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands, and finally to the almost-unimaginable (!) 'illions'... millions of years... the heartbeat rhythm of planet Earth. This portion of the exhibition also allows for a series of interpretive waysides on topics such as human presence in Grand Canyon, climate change (with associated dramatic changes in vegetation and fauna in the Grand Canyon region), to the carving of the Canyon itself by the erosive action of the Colorado River.

Map of the Trail of Time's location at Grand Canyon's South Rim.