The Grand Canyon

My AECP A1 assignment #1--Describe a Place(2nd draft)

During this winter break, I went to the south rim of the Grand Canyon with my friends. This was my second time there, and I still enjoyed the scene very much. First, we went to the desert view. There is a tower that is the highest place of the south rim and was built by the Native Americans. The first floor is a shop where they sell all kinds of regular souvenirs with the Grand Canyon logo, such as mugs, T-shirts, postcards, etc., but they also display some handicrafts that were made by the Native Americans. For example, they weave a kind of special blanket with colored twine. They make rocks and minerals of different colors into sand and use the sand for painting symbols on rocks or walls that are called rock art. After I went up to the tower, the walls of the tower were painted with all kinds of symbols. Each symbol has a specific meaning, such as the sun, the moon, rain, and all kinds of animals. When I arrived at the highest floor, the fourth floor, I saw the beautiful valley of the Colorado River. Because of the continent uplifting, the river water had the potential to erode the ground and made the sharp and deep valley of the Grand Canyon. The deepest location from the rim to the river could be over one mile deep. Most of the upper formations of the Grand Canyon are limestone, and their color is red-brown because of the large amount of iron. After that, we went to the Bright Angel, which is also an amazing place. When I was on the rim, I saw some small houses in the valley, and they all were covered with bright-white snow. A man told us that it takes about 8 hours to arrive at the houses. We tried to take a walk along the trail, but the trail was covered with snow. Although it was the first time I could touch snow and I felt extremely excited, it was too cold for me to walk on the icy trail for a long time. After about 30 minutes, I gave up and went to the nearest shop and bought some useful books about the Grand Canyon. When we left there, we saw the beautiful sunset. The sunlight made the walls of the canyon reflect red, orange, rose, and some amazing warm colors. It was a wonderful trip for me, and I want to go there again.