Grand Canyon, Horizon to Horizon

The Grand Canyon offers extremely dramatic scenes when you catch the right time and light. This panoramic view from west (left) to east has captured the yellow-red light of early twilight, few minutes after the sunset, illuminating the canyon on the right, and the blue-purple color of the rising Earth shadow on the right, at the opposite horizon (east). Above the Earth shadow, another atmospheric phenomenon known as the anticrepuscular rays is formed. Click on the second photo to see a closer view of the blue band of the Earth shadow above the Canyon where an extinct volcano is located near the edge. The Grand Canyon in northern Arizona is the longest canyon on the Earth, a steep-sided gorge carved by the Colorado River steadily in about 17 million year time span. The canyon is 446 km long, ranges in width from about 6 to 29 km and attains a depth of more than 1.6 km (a mile).