How deep is the Grand Canyon? Depth, width and age

The National Park Service puts the Grand Canyon at about 1,524 m (5,000 ft) deep at the South Rim village and 1,829 m (6,000 ft) at its deepest, measured from rim to river, though its own pages disagree on the average.

The Grand Canyon is about 1.5 km (5,000 ft, roughly a mile) deep near Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim, and up to 1,829 m (6,000 ft) deep at its deepest point, measured vertically from the rim down to the Colorado River. That makes it deep, but not the deepest canyon on Earth. The National Park Service (NPS) says Hells Canyon in the United States and Barranca del Cobre in Mexico are both deeper.

No single number is “the” depth, because the rims rise and fall and the river sits at the bottom of a slope. NPS pages give an average of 4,000 ft (1,219 m) in one place and 1 mile (1,609 m) in another. The sections below show where each figure comes from and how to pick the right one for your question.

Explain it like I’m busy:

• Typical view from the South Rim village: about 1,524 m (5,000 ft) from rim to river. Deepest point: 1,829 m (6,000 ft), per NPS.
• Average depth: NPS gives both 1,219 m (4,000 ft) and 1,609 m (1 mile). NPS states no method for either.
• The canyon is 277 river miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide, and most of its carving is thought to have happened in the last 5 to 6 million years, though that date is debated.

Key facts about the Grand Canyon’s depth

• Deepest point: 1,829 m (6,000 ft) from rim to river, according to the NPS Frequently Asked Questions page. That page does not name the spot.
• South Rim at Grand Canyon Village: about 1,524 m (5,000 ft), which NPS describes as a vertical mile.
• Rim elevations: the South Rim averages about 2,134 m (7,000 ft) above sea level and the North Rim is over 2,438 m (8,000 ft), roughly 300 m (1,000 ft) higher.
• Width: 10 miles (16 km) rim to rim at Grand Canyon Village, up to 18 miles (29 km) at the widest, and 600 ft (180 m) at Marble Canyon, the narrowest point.
• Age of the canyon: NPS says about 5 to 6 million years for the river’s cutting, while the oldest rocks in the walls are about 1.8 billion years old.

Grand Canyon depth by measure, with sources

Source: National Park Service, Grand Canyon National Park (Frequently Asked Questions, Nature, Park Statistics pages; links below). Figures are the NPS’s own and rounded. Metric values are SciQuest conversions at 0.3048 m per foot, except where NPS gave them.

What it means: depth is a drop, not a cliff

A depth of 1,829 m is a vertical distance between two points: a spot on the rim and the river below it. It is not a single wall. The walls expose nearly 40 identified rock layers, and NPS says width and depth vary from place to place.

A picture that helps is an upside-down skyscraper. At roughly 3 m per storey, 1,829 m is about 610 storeys, and the 1,524 m at the village is about 510. The analogy breaks down because the canyon is a sloping, winding valley with a river at the bottom, not a shaft with straight sides.

Here is another number that makes it concrete. NPS says daytime highs at the river, 5,000 ft below the rim, often exceed 38 °C (100 °F). Going down the canyon means leaving the rim air behind. Elevation changes temperature in the other direction on Everest, which we cover in how cold Everest is by season.

How scientists and the park measure depth

The NPS defines depth as the vertical distance from the rim to the river. Its pages do not say which survey or map data produce the 1,829 m maximum or the averages, so SciQuest treats them as official, rounded figures rather than survey results. Most are round thousands of feet.

Depth also depends on three choices. Which rim you pick matters, because the North Rim sits about 300 m higher than the South Rim. Which stretch of canyon you pick matters, because the canyon is 10 miles wide at the village and only 600 ft wide at Marble Canyon. Whether you average over the whole 277 miles or measure one viewpoint matters most of all.

The rock walls are a record too. NPS counts nearly 40 identified rock layers in the walls, and the oldest rocks at the bottom are about 1.8 billion years old, while the youngest layer, the Kaibab Formation, is 270 million years old. Gaps in that record are an active research topic, such as the missing billion years behind the Great Unconformity.

Show the maths

• Feet to metres: 6,000 ft × 0.3048 = 1,829 m (NPS gives 1,829 m). 5,000 ft × 0.3048 = 1,524 m. 4,000 ft × 0.3048 = 1,219 m. 1 mile = 5,280 ft = 1,609 m.
• The two NPS averages differ by 5,280 − 4,000 = 1,280 ft (390 m), so the larger average is 32% above the smaller (5,280 ÷ 4,000 = 1.32).
• Deepest point against the village depth: 6,000 ÷ 5,000 = 1.2, so 20% deeper.
• Width against the river: 10 miles = 52,800 ft; the river averages about 300 ft across (NPS geology page). 52,800 ÷ 300 = 176, so the canyon at the village is about 176 river-widths wide.
• Hells Canyon against the Grand Canyon’s deepest point: 7,993 − 6,000 = 1,993 ft (607 m); 7,993 ÷ 6,000 = 1.33.
• Rim difference: 2,438 − 2,134 = 304 m, matching NPS’s “a thousand feet higher”.

What changes the answer: the 4,000 ft versus 1 mile puzzle

NPS publishes two averages. The Nature page says the canyon is “averaging 4,000 feet deep for its entire 277 miles”, while the park statistics page gives an average depth of 1 mile. These two averages cannot both describe the same stretch measured the same way. SciQuest cannot tell from the pages which one reflects a survey, because neither gives a method.

The sensible reading is a range. Over the whole canyon, the average depth is somewhere between 1.2 and 1.6 km according to NPS, and the exact value depends on how rim height is defined along a rugged edge. For one viewpoint, use the viewpoint-specific figure: about 1,524 m at the South Rim village. For a headline “how deep” answer, use the deepest figure, 1,829 m.

Some commercial pages give a maximum of 6,093 ft (1,857 m) and name a spot on the North Rim. We could not trace that figure to a survey or agency source. It is within about 1.6% of NPS’s round 6,000 ft, so the safest wording is “about 6,000 ft”.

Length has a similar wrinkle. NPS counts 277 miles (446 km) of canyon from Lees Ferry to the Grand Wash Cliffs, and 278 miles (447 km) of river inside the park boundary. Both are the same stretch of river, counted slightly differently.

How the Grand Canyon compares with other canyons

Source: NPS Grand Canyon FAQ; Wikipedia articles on Hells Canyon (citing the U.S. Forest Service) and the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon (citing NASA/JPL), read 5 November 2026. Ratios are SciQuest calculations. Depth definitions are not guaranteed to match across canyons.

NPS says Barranca del Cobre in northern Mexico is also deeper than the Grand Canyon, but the page does not give a number, so we leave it out of the table. The Grand Canyon pairs its depth with a length of 277 river miles and an exposed rock record about 1.8 billion years long. For another way to think about depth, see how deep the ocean is, where the deepest point is far below any canyon rim.

How the Grand Canyon was carved

The Colorado River did most of the work. NPS says the river began carving downward 5 to 6 million years ago and that the dry climate limits widening, so the canyon is deep and narrow rather than broad. Flash floods in side canyons add to the erosion. Today the river through the canyon is about 300 ft (91 m) wide and about 40 ft (12 m) deep, a small channel set at the bottom of a very large trench.

A rough rate shows the scale. If 1,829 m was cut in 5 to 6 million years, that is an average of about 0.3 to 0.4 mm of downcutting a year (1,829,000 mm ÷ 6 million years = 0.30; ÷ 5 million years = 0.37). That is a SciQuest illustration, not a measured rate, and a simple average: the real cutting need not have been steady.

How sure is the timing?

Estimated, and still debated. NPS puts the river and canyon at 5 to 6 million years, and says the river is slightly older than the canyon. It also says an older, “ancestral” Colorado River is at least 7 million years old and may be 10 million years old, based on river gravels found near Grand Junction, Colorado. NPS notes that dating a landform is harder than dating rock layers.

Two research papers show the range of opinion. R. M. Flowers and K. A. Farley reported in Science (December 2012) helium data that, in a model, suggest the western canyon was near its modern depth about 70 million years ago. A 2014 Nature Geoscience paper by Karlstrom and colleagues argued for a canyon formed 5 to 6 million years ago by joining older palaeocanyons. SciQuest could read only the titles and summary of these two papers, not their full text, so we do not judge between them. The depth does not depend on that debate. The measurable depth today is the same whichever timeline is right.

Why it matters to you

If you are planning a visit, depth is a practical number. River-level highs often exceed 38 °C (100 °F), per NPS, so rim temperatures understate conditions at the bottom. For students and teachers, the depth figures are a good example of a number that depends on a stated definition. Check the NPS pages and the park’s guidance before any hike, because this article is not safety advice.

“But wait…” is it really a mile deep everywhere?

No. A mile is a fair description for the view near the South Rim village and for one of NPS’s two averages. The deepest point is about 20% deeper than that. NPS says width and depth vary from place to place along the 277 miles, so any single figure describes one spot or one average.

Related questions

• How wide is the Grand Canyon? 10 miles (16 km) at Grand Canyon Village, up to 18 miles (29 km), and 600 ft (180 m) at Marble Canyon, per NPS.
• How long is it? 277 river miles (446 km), measured from Lees Ferry to the Grand Wash Cliffs, per NPS.
• Is it the deepest canyon? No. NPS names Hells Canyon and Barranca del Cobre as deeper, and the Yarlung Tsangpo gorge in Tibet is reported deeper still.
• North Rim or South Rim, which is higher? The North Rim, at over 2,438 m (8,000 ft), about 300 m above the South Rim’s average 2,134 m (7,000 ft).

In one sentence

The Grand Canyon is about 1.5 km (5,000 ft) deep at the South Rim village and up to 1,829 m (6,000 ft) at its deepest, rim to river, and the exact “average” depends on a definition that the NPS itself states in two different ways.

Quick check: did it click?

1. How deep is the Grand Canyon at its deepest, according to NPS? 1,829 m (6,000 ft), rim to river.
2. Why does the canyon have more than one “average depth”? NPS gives 4,000 ft on one page and 1 mile on another, with no method stated, so the average depends on how rim height and canyon stretch are defined.
3. Is the 5 to 6 million year age settled? No. It is the NPS estimate for the river’s cutting, but a 2012 study suggested part of the western canyon was near modern depth much earlier.

Read next

• Great Unconformity: a vanished cliff may explain the Grand Canyon’s missing billion years
• How deep is the ocean? Average depth, deepest point and each ocean
• How cold is Everest? Summit and Base Camp temperatures by season

Sources

1. National Park Service, Grand Canyon National Park, Frequently Asked Questions (depth at the South Rim village and deepest point; width; length; rim elevations; Hells Canyon and Barranca del Cobre deeper; canyon age; river-level temperatures).
2. National Park Service, Nature, Grand Canyon National Park (average depth of 4,000 ft; deepest point; widest).
3. National Park Service, Park Statistics (average depth of 1 mile; width figures; 278 river miles; rim elevations).
4. National Park Service, Geology, Grand Canyon National Park (5 to 6 million years; ancestral river; rock ages; river width and depth).
5. National Park Service, Geologic Formations (about 40 rock layers; cutting by the Colorado River; dry climate and narrow canyon).
6. R. M. Flowers and K. A. Farley (2012), Apatite 4He/3He and (U-Th)/He evidence for an ancient Grand Canyon, Science 338, 1616 to 1619 (title and journal summary read; full text not accessible).
7. K. E. Karlstrom et al. (2014), Formation of the Grand Canyon 5 to 6 million years ago through integration of older palaeocanyons, Nature Geoscience (title and citation record read; full text not accessible).
8. Wikipedia, Hells Canyon (7,993 ft; cites the U.S. Forest Service) and Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon (6,009 m; cites NASA/JPL). These are secondary sources, used only for the comparison table.

Disclosure: This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Calculations by SciQuest: unit conversions at 0.3048 m per foot, storey counts at an assumed 3 m each (1,829 ÷ 3 = 610; 1,524 ÷ 3 = 508), ratios and the rough downcutting rate (1,829 m over 5 to 6 million years, about 0.3 to 0.4 mm a year), which are illustrations rather than measurements. The graphic is a SciQuest original built from the cited figures. No expert was interviewed. Spotted an error? See our corrections policy.