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Is the Grand Canyon too popular for its own good?
Our writer traveled the length of the Grand Canyon searching for its pristine, timeless wonder. Instead, he found an ecosystem being squeezed by increasingly larger crowds.
Intermission in the dramatic 2,200-foot descent of the Colorado through the canyon is staged under the arch of the Redwall Cavern, 33 miles downriver from Lees Ferry. Everywhere pocked by footprints, the beach here became such an overcrowded stopping place that authorities had to prohibit camping. As recently as 1948, fewer than a hundred people had run the river the length of the canyon. Today 14,000 travel some of all of it yearly.
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