世界之旅:Grand canyon, Arizona, USA （美國亞利桑那州大峽谷）
美國亞利桑那州大峽谷聞名遐邇，是世界七大奇觀之一。位於美國西南部，亞利桑那州西北與猶他州、內華達州交界處凱巴布高原的三角地帶。由於科羅拉多河穿流其中，故又名科羅拉多大峽谷。這一大片隆起的高原，最深處達1500米，地形險峻綺麗，地質多由花崗石構成，色彩奪目，予人身置其間，有如走進地質博物館之感。
A famous American John Muir said in 1898: “The Grand Canyon… as unearthly in the color and grandeur and quantity of its architecture as if you had found it after death on some other star.”
一位著名的美國人約翰‧繆爾曾在1898年說過：“（科羅拉多河的）大峽谷……它的色彩和構造的宏偉多樣是世上所無的，就像是人消亡以後在別的星球上發現的東西。”
美國大峽谷的“死亡電單車”
科羅拉多大峽谷(the Grand Canyon)總面積接近3公里，任何人都不可能一眼看遍大峽谷的全貌。只有從高空俯瞰，纔有可能完整地欣賞這條大地的裂縫。真正身臨其境的人，只能從峽谷南緣或者北緣欣賞大峽谷的一部分。這倒是應了“不是廬山真面目，只緣身在此山中”的道理。
Perhaps the most spectacular feature of the Grand Canyon, its Redwall limestone cliff, stands about half way up the chasm and is practically vertical. Its average height is 550 feet --- almost exactly that of the Washington Monument. Though it is actually gray-blue limestone, the surface of the cliff has been stained to a sunset hue by iron salts washing out of the rocks. Above the Redwall come alternating layers of red sandstone and shale 1,000 feet thick, then comes the next pale-blue layer. The topmost layers are a yellowish limestone.
也許，大峽谷最引人注目的風貌特色是“紅牆”石灰石懸崖，它聳立在裂口半當中，幾乎是垂直的。它的平均高度爲550 英尺--幾乎和華盛頓紀念碑一樣高。雖然它實際上是灰藍色的石灰石，但是從岩石裏滲出的鐵鹽卻把懸崖表面染上了晚霞般的色彩。在“紅牆”的上方，是紅色的沙岩和1 000 英尺厚的頁岩交替 層，然後是淺藍色的沙岩層，最上層是淡黃色的石灰石。
Though the two rims face each other across only 12 miles, it is a journey of 214 miles by car from one to the other. Nor can you visit the North Rim except in summer; some 1,200 feet higher than the South Rim, it is snow covered much of the year except in July and August.
儘管南北兩緣面對面相隔只有12英里，可是坐車從一邊到另一邊的距離卻是214英里。北緣只能在夏天參觀；它比南緣高出1 200英尺左右；除了7、8月外，其它大部分時間都爲冰雪覆蓋。
But there is no day that you may not visit the South Rim and find the sun warm on your face and the air perfumed with the incense of smoke from an Indian hearth. The Grand Canyon is an unearthly sight. No wonder an American writer and journalist said, “I came here an atheist, and departed a devout believer.”
然而南緣任何時候都歡迎人們的來訪。在那裏溫暖的陽光照在人們的臉上；空氣中瀰漫着印第安香爐中散發出的煙香氣。大峽谷是一道超凡脫俗的風景。難怪一位美國作家兼記者說：“我來這裏時還是個無神論者，離開時卻是個虔誠的信徒了。”
