At Powell Point, a memorial honors the members of John Wesley Powell’s expedition down the Colorado River in 1869, when the area was still a blank spot on the national map. Four decades later, in 1920, the dedication ceremony for Grand Canyon National Park took place here. You can catch a glimpse of the river far below.
If you climb the stairs to the top of the memorial, turn away from the canyon and look south for views of the San Francisco Peaks. Follow the slopes of the peaks up and imagine an even higher single peak, blown away when an extinct volcano erupted 400,000 years ago.
Of the existing peaks formed when the ancient peak blew its top, Mount Humphrey marks the highest point in Arizona, at 12,633 feet.