Largest Canyons in North America: Natural Wonders Part 1
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- Опубліковано 12 лип 2024
- First video in a series discussing Natural Wonders of North America. In this video I discuss the largest canyons in North America. There are many different ways to determine "largest" canyon whether it be depth, length, or width, so here I look at many of the canyons that are considered the largest ones based on the different criteria.
0:00 Intro
1:29 Grand Canyon
2:28 Copper Canyon
3:36 Kings Canyon
4:58 Hells Canyon
6:08 Palo Duro Canyon
7:25 Columbia River Gorge
8:36 New River Gorge
10:06 Grand Canyon of the Stikine
10:54 Grand Canyon of Greenland
11:56 Outro
Album displayed:
Faith No More: "Sol Invictus" (2015)
I think you should have mentioned the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado for It's steep narrow depths approaching 2000 feet straight down and a similar distance across. Very spectacular to stand on the edge of that canyon. The greatest depth is about 2,700 feet, and at Chasm View the width at the top is only 1,100 feet, but the depth is 1,800 feet.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison is actually deeper than the Grand Canyon too! It’s the deepest canyon in the US. I’ve visited it and it was just spectacular!
He could also have mentioned the Royal Gorge!
Now that you've described it, where can I view some pictures ?
I said the same thing. Standing on the edge of the Black canyon was insane, it is massive and very cool looking
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone deserves an honorable mention. No idea how "large" it is but it's a beautiful and very worthwhile visit.
I'll second that.
Nice to see Palo Duro Canyon getting some love. A big part of the canyon isn't very accessible to the public but it is pretty and worth checking out. This summer I am planning on visiting the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado. I wonder how it compares to some of these.
Canadian here, I visited Amarillo and was totally unaware of Palo duro canyon!
Black Canyon of the Gunnison is a beautiful sight, just make sure you are positioned to see into it! It is so steep and narrow that many of the viewing angles don't offer a convenient view of the bottom.
The New River Gorge Bridge is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful.
One of the most stunning canyons in the Eastern US and perhaps one of the deepest is Breaks Interstate Park on the Kentucky and Virginia border. It’s a beautiful drive and well worth the visit.
Two other honorable mentions are the James River Gorge in VA and Lindy Point in WV
Linville Gorge and Gorge following river east of Chatanooga
The Grand Canyon of the Pacific in Kauai is one of the most amazing views I saw in Hawaii. One small island with near desert on the west coast and this river about 7 miles inland from that coast leading from a high altitude swamp (4000'asl) and through a canyon. The drive up the west side is awesome.....
it’s a beautiful area! Technically though, the Hawaiian islands are not considered in the North American region geographically speaking, so it wouldn’t be in this video
The columbia gorge is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world, both the western part where multnomah falls (left pic on the thumbnail) and beacon rock are, AND the eastern part of the gorge around mosier, oregon and lyle, washington
Bang for buck it sure is too in my mind. I love that you can literally watch the landscape change in a short few hours while driving through this gorge. Dry, hot and arid air yields to unrelenting rain and moisture as you descend toward the Pacific Ocean.
Couldn’t agree more. The Columbia river basin is a beautiful part of the PNW
Yes it’s such a beautiful area that you now have to make a reservation to park at Multnomah Falls, and your reservation doesn’t guarantee a parking spot! The George is still recovering from the fire, started by teenagers throwing fireworks(a smoke bomb into Eagle Creek Canyon). Fire burned 47,000 acres. From just East of Troutdale to just West of Hood River in Sept 2017. we‘ll NEVER see trees of that size in the burned areas again in our lifetimes!
And further north getting into Revelstoke CA
@@kenpatton8761 Wow, sounds like the rain and gloom really got to you? Trees grow back. That whole area burned in 1991. It grew back quickly then, and it is now. Fire also keeps the beetles and diseases from killing off the forest.
The Columbia River Gorge was also the drainage area that brought the catastrophic Missoula Floods to the Pacific in the last ice age. In fact the middle portion of Washington is known as the " Channeled Scablands." You'll find all sorts of Coulees and interesting geological formations there, formed by those exact floods.
Professor Nick Zettner has many lectures and you tube videos on these topics. I highly recommend watching Nick. His excellent teaching skills with make a geography nerd out of anyone with an interest in geography. An 800 ft deep flood ripping across the PNW is a great topic to hook you in.
@@loveistheanswer8137 I've watched some of his lectures before. It is fascinating.
Nick from CWU has a video about the huge landslide on the WA side of the gorge near bridge of the gods that happened during that drainage. It's where the gorge or river narrows.
But 100 WA floods brought sediment to what was rocky lands, so anti catastrophic if you're a farmer....
Ironically, while defining what constitutes a canyon there was a picture of Bryce Canyon National Park here in Utah, which isn't technically a canyon. It is one-sided (in its entirety) and was formed by weather erosion rather than a glacier or river. Whoever decided to name it Bryce Canyon definitely wasn't subscribed to Geography King.
One of my favorite canyons is the Snake River Gorge, especially west of where the giant ancient pluvial lake, Lake Bonneville, drained into it in a giant flood about 17,000 years ago.
(Edit: I just re-read my comment and realized it sounded very pedantic and rude towards Kyle, which wasn't my intention at all. Sorry, Kyle!)
I thought the same when I saw the picture of Bryce Canyon.
I don't see a tone. Good facts
He talked about the snake river canyon in the vid!
Named after Ebenezer Bryce, an early rancher. whose best known comment was "It's a hell of a place to lose a cow"!
In NC we have the Linville gorge, It's quite beautiful but I'm not sure how it stacks up to the bigger canyons
A tiny canyon, but noteworthy gorge is the Mississippi River Gorge in Minneapolis/St Paul. The only natural gorge on the important river. It also was formed by the only Natural Major waterfall on the river and last navigable place on the river. Would be good for a series on interesting urban geography or how cities were formed by their geography.
I mentioned mpls gorge too..... Lake Pepin use to come up to St Paul but sediment has filled half the length in.... Is there gorge S of Duluth? . .. . . I once walked the Brule river SE of Duluth so crossed from N to S watershed and peed on the dividing line, ha...
This is great! Thanks for posting. I agree the natural wonders of this country are amazing and it’s my hope to see as many of them as possible after I retire
Me being a North Cascades aficionado, I have to mention the Chelan trench wherein lies Lake Chelan. The lake is at 1100 feet above sea level, but the deepest part of the lake lies at 400 feet below sea level. The mountains on both sides of the lake rise to nearly 9000 feet, so the Chelan trench is roughly 9000 feet deep, much deeper than the Grand Canyon and Copper Canyon, and even besting the depth of Hells Canyon and Kings Canyon which makes it the deepest canyon in North America.
If you are interested in palo duro I recommend looking up the "Llano estacado" which palo duro is part of. You can see it all from the satellite view and is such a quick drastic change from the flat plains of the panhandle. The elevation from the rockies rushes downwards before hitting the Llano Estacado
Great video, and I’m really excited for this series! Other cool canyons worth mentioning are Black Canyon in Colorado, Letchworth Gorge in New York, and Sumidero Canyon in Chiapas, Mexico. But of course, living in SLC I love all the canyons east of the city for hiking and skiing
Definitely Letchworth! 😊
Agreed, having been to the Black Canyon you really can't comprehend how deep and steep it is until you are there. When I drove there, I thought, oh, where is the canyon? The foliage is sort of thick, but then you realize you are just a few hundred feet from a literal 2000 foot near vertical drop.
Black Canyon!...more breathtaking than the Grand imo...So narrow and deep.
Sumidero Canyon in Chiapas was an amazing experience - especially the waterfall originating from inside one of the cliffs.
@@bernivideo I was surprised to "find" Letchworth. Beautiful site and really accessible for tens of millions of people.
Very good job in surveying the various types of “largest” canyons/gorges. The audio and graphics are informative without excess. Thanks!
Great video, Kyle! Excellent idea to mention the Greenland canyon.. I had never heard of it til now. So cool!! Thanks for teaching me something new ✌️
Looking at it from a Tectonic viewpoint I'd have to say that Greenland is part of the North American Plate. The piddling amount of water separating Greenland from the Canadian Arctic Islands doesn't mean much. In actuality the Earth is currently in a Supercontinent phase today. Aside from crossing rivers and the Bearing Strait it is technically possible to walk from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn in South America. The Eurasian, African, Arabian, Indian, North American and South American plates are joined together in a strung out version of a Supercontinent. The suture between North America and Eurasia is somewhere in Eastern Siberia.
Add in the other two features on Greenland discovered by aerial radar mapping. The Hiawatha Crater in Northwest Greenland and another crater as big or bigger in the north central region. The Hiawatha is right on the edge of the ice cap with about 50% of the crater outside of the ice cap. Curiously the oldest ice found in the crater is about 12k years old.
Honorable mention to Sumidero Canyon in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. Not sure how it compares WRT depth or length, but it has some very steep walls that seem mighty high. Not as well-known as the ones you mentioned, but I found it very impressive. Another outstanding video, as always! Thanks!
Canyon de Chelly in the Navajo Nation is worth a look (and a trip.) Great hiking and astonishing views.
A new, but interesting concept. Definitely enjoy these series that have multiple parts. Another great watch
Monterey Canyon is the biggest (there we go again) *undersea* canyon in North America. A theory is it used to be at the outflow for the Colorado river before plate tectonics slid the Pacific plate 300 miles north. Now it's at the outflow of the puny Pajaro and Salinas rivers.
You've done it again, Kyle. Great start to what promises to be a very interesting series. Right up my alley!
This is going to be a GREAT series. Great subject matter. Love your stuff.
I love these kinds of videos! Keep them coming, Kyle!!
I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon or anything, so the first time I drove over the new river gorge in West Virginia i was legitimately at a loss of words. It’s a surreal experience the first time you see something like that
I do like the concept of Natural Wonders and I do hope you expand beyond North America for this series. I would certainly like to see an episode that focuses on unusual natural wonders formed through unique or catastrophic means, kind of like how there's a ton of unique geography in Washington due to Ice Age floods, or something along those lines.
He could start such a series with Barringer Crater in Arizona.
The floods at the end of the last Glacial Advance shaped much of the topography of North America. Not just the PNW.
@@mpetersen6 I know, I was just noting a neat example of one of those floods as an example.
Awesome, This is going to be a great series, Thanks !!
I already love this new video series. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Lehigh Gorge around Jim Thorpe, which is pretty steep in itself. This really inspires me to check out New River Gorge. Thanks Geography King!
Love this idea for a series!
Man I truly appreciate these videos. Excellent, digestible, informative presentations and always a great launching point for further reading and, someday, travel.
Love all your videos, but I learned so much in this one compared to what I already generally know baseline going into your cities/regional differences/state breakdowns. Really looking forward to the next ones in this series, and I also hope you can expand it beyond North America, too! You do a great job explaining the technicalities, pointing out the key features and surprising aspects, and including the human aspect, all in a condensed way. Keep it up!
Great video series idea! Can't wait for more! Thanks for this! :)
Great video, sounds like this'll be a neat series!
Another great series to look forward to every three months
Already liking this new series! Pretty much anyone who is a landscape photographer should watch this.
Thank you for the video, and especially for including Palo Duro Canyon. As someone who grew up nearby, it's great to see someone mentioning something about this "forgotten" area of the country. Would like to see you do a video on another interesting geographical feature of this region, the Caprock Escarpment, of which Palo Duro Canyon is a part of. It runs almost 200 miles in length, with numerous canyons and the Caprock Canyons State Park.
Love what you do! Keep up the great work.
I have a seasonal creek running alongside my property line, and over time this creek has carved a canyon into the soil and rock bed. Some of the creekside cliffs tower upwards of 4-5 ft, making the climb out somewhat challenging if I've just eaten a large meal. The views are spectacular from the top, with panoramic vistas of my backyard and my neighbor's tool shed.
I'm a little disappointed that my canyon didn't make the cut. Perhaps it will be featured in the 'North American Natural Wonders Part 2' video.
🤣
I'll come back in about a million years when it's a mile deep.
Much thanks, Love your succinct presentation and delivery.
Great video! Thanks for the info about New River Gorge-a wonderful area to visit and play.
I love this channel so much.
Great video! Love learning something new today!
Beautiful photos and interesting details--a great reminder of the importance of conservation. I also found the Greenland info interesting. I never thought about the geography under the ice.
This video is one I've most enjoyed, having been a subscriber for several months. It makes me wish I had majored in Geography in college. I am fascinated by any type of map or graphic, and the graphic of the Colorado Plateau took lots of study! I tried to discern where some of the natural features, such as Zion, Bryce, etc,, were on the ridge line. I was very interested in the discussion of the Stikine Canyon in B.C. I have only just finished reading a book written about homesteading along the Stikine between Telegraph Cove and Wrangell in the 1980s. The picture at 10:35 in the video shows a road that is mentioned frequently, even a description when the author had to BACK DOWN this road with a trailer on the back of his vehicle! It was a real treat to see the actual road. Thank you for continually offering such interesting and informative content!
Excellent video, looking forward to part 2.
I live an hour+ from Hells Canyon, previous trips there helped draw me to live in NE Oregon. Grew up hiking in the CRG.
I grew up in Baker City
Great stuff! Keep it coming
Another excellent video, thank you Kyle.
Great video! If you say you're going to start a series, an episode about different cave systems might be a neat one!
Fantastic series. Very informative I learned some new things which is always a good thing
Your usual fine job! Thanks
Great video. Gave me some good ideas for next summer’s motorcycle trip. Thank you!
That was excellent, Kyle!
Another canyon that would qualify is Copper Canyon, in northern Mexico. I took a train trip from from Presidio in Texas thru to the Gulf of California in 1970, and the train stopped for about an hour and a half so everyone aboard could dismount and view the canyon. There are native Mexican Indian families living in the canyon to this day. It's quite impressive!
NEXT DO LARGEST/MOST POPULAR LAGOONS IN NORTH AMERICA! love the content always.
Yes, more natural wonders please!
Hey Kyle, next time you’re in the Portland area, if weather permits, I can fly you thru the Columbia River Gorge. Great video!
1: 44. Thank you very much for so many highly interesting videos.
The mile wide Grand Canyon is competently explained in a few videos to not possibly be carved by the Colorado river, but carved by a tremendous release of water forming a sea to the north, the sea part of the results of the Great Flood c 4,350 years ago.
Super neat. Loved this video topic.
Would you consider doing a canyons of the world video?
Great video!
Make another canyon list in North America but the underrated ones or the canyons in each state if there are some.
great video! thank you!
good work, very informative~!
Excellent!
always look forward to a new video from you Kyle👍
Very well done and informative video.
I've been to 2 of these canyons -- Columbia Gorge and Kings Canyon. Both beautiful and worth seeing!
Your channel is so good
Thank you!
Great video. I live about 50 minutes from the Columbia Gorge. Great hiking and photo opportunities their.
Excellent subject.
Love this idea
Awesome video
If you’re in the New River Gorge area make sure to check out Summersville Lake for some awesome cliff jumping! Stay safe and have fun..
Thanks for another cool video, GeogKing
Black Canyon of the Gunnison - beyond compare! The approach from the north on Highway 92 affords great perspective without all the crowds. A truly Colorado experience!
Thank you, Kyle
Nice breakdown
Thank you!
Well-paced and inclusive of vocabulary descriptors , the photo for each location provides viewers information on terrain in forest, on rock, rainfall in forest or desert --the comparison of extremes elevates a conversation to become interesting . I appreciate each picture and if one person took them all or most, that's a project in progress and a great job reinforcing student learning and retention. So many younger graduates are always giving me the chance to challenge them to read an abstract from a science journal. That for me is the test of graduate certification. Most fail latin pronunciations on specie names .
Kyle, this type of American stuff, even though I'm an American, is always fun to watch. Just because I'm also a geography nerd, with a side interest in finding the correct pronunciation of our many places around the US with "off the wall" pronunciations, I know that the Hualapai tribe/reservation is pronounced WAH-lah-pie.
-This was a good one.
I’ve been to the new river gorge. It’s beautiful, I recommend it 100%
This is such a great video topic I audibly said "yes!!"
Monterey Canyon is another good one. About the same depth and the Grand Canyon.
Like Greenland’s grand canyon, the Monterey Canyon is difficult to appreciate as it is under the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.
New River Gorge! West Virginia representing!
jumped it twice before it was popular '89 , sweet water. must be nice to live there .
Great video. I went to the Grand Canyon in 2019 and I was impressed. I didn’t realize there were more canyons in the United States and a gorge is Ike a canyon. I have been to those falls in the Columbia river gorge and it is so beautiful. I was going to go to the new river gorge this year but hopefully next year.
As a followup you could do a video on the most popular canyon in each state. In the upper midwest there would be:
- Illinois: Starved Rock State Park (very underrated area)
- Wisconsin: Wisconsin Dells
- Iowa: Upper Iowa River by Decorah (honorable mention Mines of Spain)
So glad to see the new river gorge on here. It's the most beautiful place I've seen so far in my life. Haven't made it out west yet though. I'm from the ohio valley. I love seeing your videos and learning about all the beautiful places I've gotta see someday. I've learned so much from your videos, they're great. So I'm a novice ww rafter/kayaker and I've done the gauley river during gauley season twice now. My birthday falls in the middle of gauley season and it's a new tradition now to hit the gauley. This past year I went while hurricane ian was just sitting over west Virginia and the day we did the gauley the water was at 5500 cubic feet per second from it's normal 2800. Needless to say it was the most fun I've ever had nearly dieing. It was insane and incredible and the scenery in west Virginia and the Appalachians in general is breathtaking.
Best ever. Much prefer this to city vids.
There a various roads as well as hotels and restaurants for rafters and boaters in Hells Canyon. It's like 20 minutes from Clarkston-Lewiston
Thanks Kyle. I know you are a punk (plus other genres of music) fan. Did you get to see Amyl and the Sniffers when they were in your area? I really enjoy your vids (I live in the continental divide of Colorado but have travelled quite a bit, so appreciate your perspective)! Thanks again! Dave J (ETA: I think the Black Canyon of the Gunnison is the most underrated canyon in the US. Plus I got pinkeye from the Palo Duro, I think anyway, so I might be biased)
Thank you! ⭐🌹😘💕⭐
Sick vid bruh
New River Gorge is amazing! I just took the Amtrak Cardinal through it Sunday!
A nice day trip from almost anywhere in Ohio (yes, Ohio) is Clifton Gorge. It's located near the town of Clifton not far from Yellowsprings. Nice little state park with picnicking and trails. Very pretty.
You are the Geography King 👑
190k subs?? Weren't you just at 49k? Good job, other Kyle!
Thank you! There has been quite a bit of growth this year. It's nice to see so much interest in geography
Check out the Oregon Coast trail. It’s incomplete but a great way to experience the peoples coast. Thinking about taking a month and hiking it next summer
Mom and dad took us camping everywhere in California as kids in the 70's. King's canyon was my favorite place!
And that was after we hit Tahoe, Yosemite, Big Basin and Sequoia on the same road trip.
Most of Eastern Oregon is a desert? That's crazy. I'll remember that fact forever. That's why I watch you, Geography King! Keep up the good work!
And most of eastern Washington and nearly all of Nevada.
@@margefoyle6796 interesting. I never realized the deserts in Nevada extended so far north.
@@Unknowngfyjoh There are four main deserts in the American West (I'm not counting the tundra in alaska which technically meets most requirements of a desert): The Chihuahuan, which is mostly in Mexico but extends into parts of southwestern Texas and Southern New Mexico; the Sonoran, which is also mostly in Mexico but extends into quite a bit of Arizona (think saguaro cactus); the Mojave, which is primarily in California but a little bit in Nevada and Arizona (think Joshua tree); and the Great Basin desert, which covers most of the basin ranges that makeup Nevada and extends north through eastern Oregon and into Washington and southern Idaho (think rabbit brush and sagebrush). This desert is in a rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges and is on uplifted land (higher elevation) in its southern reaches, but the latitude makes it colder and drier as you head north even though the elevation isn't as high. It is a cold and dry desert.
... most of US west is desert and awful land, but pretty. Add in earthquakes and stuff and long-term no one should live here. - A in OR
as a geologist i am freaking out for this series 🥰🥰🥰🥰
Driving West on i84 coming down into the Columbia River Gorge, it is absolutely stunning. The river in that section is almost 3 miles wide which looks massive.
Greenland is part of the North American continent and even shares a land border with Canada.