The Grand Canyon’s Most Impressive Feat Technically Isn’t In Arizona

There is no greater American monument to the natural world than the Grand Canyon. The massive hole in the ground stretches over a million acres and draws in millions of visitors every year.

The canyon itself is not all the National Park has to offer, however, and it's greatest secret has been hidden from view for years.

The Grand Canyon Caverns

Discovered in 1927 by Walter Peck, the Grand Canyon Caverns may be more impressive than the canyon itself. They lie around 210 feet underground and sprawl across 2,406 feet of the Arizona desert. As such, they are the largest dry caverns in the United States.

The caverns lasted as a massive tourist attraction for years until the Cuban Missile Crisis, in which they were retrofitted into an underground fallout shelter with supplies for up to 2,000 people, which still remain within the caverns walls. Obviously, this didn't last, and the Caverns are once again a tourist hotspot with an Inn, RV Park, Campgrounds, and more being created in the surrounding area.

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Hiatus and Recent Return

Unfortunately for cavern enthusiasts, it seemed that their time was at an end. In 2022, a group of 24 people were trapped after the elevator down malfunctioned. Since this posed such a massive risk, the caverns became closed for tours for the foreseeable future.

Luckily, they couldn't be stopped for that long. A new elevator was put in place, replacing the old one, which hadn't been checked on since the 1960s. Finally, in mid-June 2025, three years after their closure, the caverns opened again, excited to bring in visitors from worldwide once again.

[Grand Canyon Caverns via Wikipedia][AZ Family][@grandcanyoncavern via Instagram]