50 Magnificent Grand Canyon Quotes for Grand Canyon Captions & Statuses

Last Updated on: 19th September 2021, 05:26 pm

Looking for beautiful quotes about the Grand Canyon? This Arizona UNESCO World Heritage Site has inspired some truly beautiful travel quotes.

So whether you’re looking for travel inspiration or Grand Canyon Instagram captions or Facebook statuses, here are my favorite Grand Canyon quotes!

Read Next: Spend One Perfect Day in the Grand Canyon: Itinerary & Travel Tips!

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How to Use these Grand Canyon Quotes

Feel free to use this post to find beautiful quotes about the Grand Canyon for your photo captions, Grand Canyon Instagram captions, Grand Canyon Whatsapp status, Viber status, Grand Canyon Facebook status, or however you want! If you do use one, I’d love if you linked or tagged me so I can enjoy your work! 

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The Best Grand Canyon Quotes & Grand Canyon Instagram Captions

Here are my favorite quotes about Grand Canyon, including inspiration from poems, literature, pop culture, and quotes by famous American authors!

Grand Canyon Travel Quotes

I had come to the canyon with expectations. I wanted to see snowy egrets flying against the black schist at dusk; I saw blue-winged teal against the green waters at dawn. I had wanted to hear thunder rolling in the thousand-foot depths; I heard the guttural caw of four ravens…what any of us had come to see or do fell away. We found ourselves at each turn with what we had not imagined. –Barry López

The glories and the beauties of form, color, and sound unite in the Grand Canyon – forms unrivaled even by the mountains, colors that vie with sunsets, and sounds that span the diapason from tempest to tinkling raindrop, from cataract to bubbling fountain. –John Wesley Powell

Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it. -Theodore Roosevelt

It’s like trying to describe what you feel when you’re standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon or remembering your first love or the birth of your child. You have to be there to really know what it’s like. -Jack Schmitt

Publishing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo. –Don Marquis

Anybody who travels knows that you’re not really doing so in order to move around – you’re traveling in order to be moved. And really what you’re seeing is not just the Grand Canyon or the Great Wall but some moods or intimations or places inside yourself that you never ordinarily see when you’re sleepwalking through your daily life. -Pico Iyer

Beautiful doesn’t begin to describe it. A flower is beautiful. But this is beautiful the way that a person is beautiful- terrifying with its jagged edges, yet seductive with its crevices that hide so many secrets. –Jeri Smith-Ready

Rim
are there horizons
where there is no horizontal
where mountains fold space,
hold distance up?
embedded in a canyon
our heads tilt instinctively.
here earth meets sky,
we can reach it; the rim
does not shimmer and recede.

-Laurelyn Whitt

The Grand Canyon is carven deep by the master hand; it is the gulf of silence, widened in the desert; it is all time inscribing the naked rock; it is the book of earth. -Donald C. Peattie

There will never be a photograph of the Grand Canyon that can adequately describe its depth, breadth, and true beauty. –Stefanie Payne

As dawn leaks into the sky it edits out the stars like excess punctuation marks, deleting asterisks and periods, commas, and semi-colons, leaving only unhinged thoughts rotating and pivoting, and unsecured words. –Ann Zwinger

I do not know, really, how we will survive without places like the Inner Gorge of the Grand Canyon to visit. Once in a lifetime, even, is enough. To feel the stripping down, an ebb of the press of conventional time, a radical change of proportion, an unspoken respect for others that elicits keen emotional pleasure, a quick intimate pounding of the heart.

The living of life, any life, involves great and private pain, much of which we share with no one. In such places as the Inner Gorge the pain trails away from us. It is not so quiet there or so removed that you can hear yourself think, that you would even wish to; that comes later. You can hear your heartbeat. That comes first. –Barry López

The Grand Canyon is living evidence of the power of water over a period of time. The power may not manifest immediately. Water can be very powerful, like a tidal wave. -Frederick Lenz

If there is a point to being in the canyon, it is not to rush but to linger, suspended in a blue-and-amber haze of in-between-ness, for as long as one possibly can. To float, to drift, savoring the pulse of the river on its odyssey through the canyon, and above all, to postpone the unwelcome and distinctly unpleasant moment when one is forced to reemerge and reenter the world beyond the rim-that is the paramount goal. –Kevin Fedarko

I love my country, by which I mean I am indebted joyfully to all the people throughout its history, who have fought the government to make right. Where so many cunning sons and daughters, our foremothers and forefathers came singing through slaughter, came through hell and high water so that we could stand here, and behold breathlessly the sight; how a raging river of tears cut a grand canyon of light. Why can’t all decent men and women call themselves feminists, out of respect for those that fought for this? –Ani DiFranco

In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. -Theodore Roosevelt

This landscape is animate: it moves, transposes, builds, proceeds, shifts, always going on, never coming back, and one can only retain it in vignettes, impressions caught in a flash, flipped through in succession, leaving a richness of images imprinted on a sunburned retina. –Ann Zwinger

You cannot see the Grand Canyon in one view, as if it were a changeless spectacle from which a curtain might be lifted, but to see it, you have to toil from month to month through its labyrinths. -John Wesley Powell

I can’t
Put myself in the pinyon’s place, trembling
At the edge, growing at the upper end of a
Human sized bowl, the lower end a slot i peer
Through to see the river’s ribbon, its white flecked
Trail through the deepest cleft of all. I can’t know
The pinyon’s mind , though I try.

–Mary Beath

He meant the Grand Canyon was only a mood of nature, a bold promise, a beautiful record. He meant that mountains had sifted away in its dust, yet the canyon was young. Man was nothing, so let him be humble. This cataclysm of the earth, this playground of a river was not inscrutable; it was only inevitable—as inevitable as nature herself. Millions of years in the bygone ages it had lain serene under a half-moon; it would bask silent under a rayless sun, in the onward edge of time. –Zane Grey

It is a spectacular illusion – a deeply three-dimensional scene flattened onto an earthly canvas. –Stefanie Payne

Mortals: meet
the empty air,
arias carved
out of rocks beyond
our puny clock
philosophy.
-Thea Gavin

Martha told me, “I don’t know how you’re going to talk about romance in your book, but you’re going to have to because its truly part of all our lives down there-and in a big way- because its an incredibly sensuous environment. Think of how many times you’ve fallen in love down there, and how many times people have fallen in love with you. Its a place where we shine. We’re the happiest in our lives. We’re vibrant. We’re just so full of life, and not only does that put you in the mood for love, it sets you up for it. People are really drawn to people who are shining, who feel so happy where they are and who they are and what they’re doing and who they’re doing it with.” –Martha Clark

A thought that stayed with me was that I had entered a private place in the earth. I had seen exposed nearly its oldest part. I had lost my sense of urgency, rekindled a sense of what people were, clambering to gain access to high waterfalls and a sense of our endless struggle as a species to understand time and to estimate the consequences of our acts. –Barry López

Sunrise, Grand Canyon
We stand on the edge, the fall
Into depth, the ascent
Of light revelatory, the canyon walls moving
Up out of
Shadow, lit
Colors of the layers cutting
Down through darkness, sunrise as it
Passes a
Precipitate of the river, its burnt tangerine
Flare brief, jagged

-Rick Kempa

I sit watching until dusk, hypnotized. I think of the sea as continually sloshing back and forth, repetitive, but my psyche goes with the river- always loping downhill, purposeful, listening only to gravity. –Ann Zwinger

And the rapids: down the glassy-smooth tongue into a yawing trench, climb a ten-foot wall of standing water and fall into boiling, ferocious hydraulics… –Barry López

Eating Fruit at the Grand Canyon- A song to make death easy
Since this great hole in earth is beyond
My comprehension and I am hungry,
I sit on the rim and eat fruit

-Diane Hume George

Politicians wanted to mine the Grand Canyon for zinc and copper, and Theodore Roosevelt said, ‘No.’ -Douglas Brinkley

The Grand Canyon which yawns between the writer’s concept of what he wants to capture in words and what comes through is a cruel abyss. -Fannie Hurst

It took five days to drive to Los Angeles by myself. I listened to Abbey Road for six hours at a time and watched the desert open up before me again and again. I saw the sun set and rise at the Grand Canyon, and I sang out over the cliffs, picked up tumbleweeds along the way, and threw them in the back of my car. -Madi Diaz

There’s not a single person in Arizona today who would say the Grand Canyon was a mistake. -Stewart Udall

I don’t believe that anyone can see the Grand Canyon area for themselves and not know that we have to do everything we can to protect it for future generations. -Nolan Gould

Occasionally we glimpse the South Rim, four or five thousand feet above. From the rims the canyon seems oceanic; at the surface of the river the feeling is intimate. To someone up there with binoculars we seem utterly remote down here. It is this know dimension if distance and time and the perplexing question posed by the canyon itself- What is consequential? –Barry López

I can still remember my first experience of standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon and looking into it. It was so awesome, it took a fair amount of restraint to prevent me from jumping into it, because I was certain I could fly. -Mark Goulston

The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features. Language and illustration combined must fail. -John Wesley Powell

I believe in evolution. But I also believe, when I hike the Grand Canyon and see it at sunset, that the hand of God is there also. -John McCain

I believe in science and evolution. I’ve been to the Grand Canyon. -Bill Walton

The elements that unite to make the Grand Canyon the most sublime spectacle in nature are multifarious and exceedingly diverse. -John Wesley Powell

Maybe you weren’t born with a silver spoon in your mouth, but like every American, you carry a deed to 635 million acres of public lands. That’s right. Even if you don’t own a house or the latest computer on the market, you own Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and many other natural treasures. -John Garamendi

Majestic doesn’t appeal to us. We like the Grand Canyon better with Clarence and Arlene parked in front of it, smiling. -Garrison Keillor

Funny Quotes About the Grand Canyon

Crying – acceptable at funerals and the Grand Canyon. -Ron Swanson (Parks & Rec)

When visiting the Grand Canyon, make sure you hike into the canyon. And be careful not to fall or step in mule poop. –McKenna Shay

Climbing K2 or floating the Grand Canyon in an inner tube; there are some things one would rather have done than do. -Edward Abbey

You can’t say you’re going to jump the Grand Canyon and then jump some other canyon. -Evel Knievel

I would rather stumble by chance on a tiny stream in the woods than plan a trip to the Grand Canyon. –Marty Rubin

I believe in a benevolent God not because He created the Grand Canyon or Michelangelo, but because He gave us snacks. –Paul Rudnick

Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal. -George Will

We did a lot of those road trips, all the mandatory stuff that you should when you’re a kid, like Mount Rushmore and the Grand Canyon and the Sequoias and the western coast. -Vicki Lawrence

I went to the Grand Canyon with my family when I was about 8 years old, and I had a very blah experience. I think the scale of it is too huge – you don’t appreciate it. -David Roberts

Love Travel Quotes?

I’m a little obsessed with travel quotes. If you are too, check out this massive guide to 250 Inspirational Travel Quotes & Travel Instagram Captions, plus the best quotes about California, New York quotes, Texas quotes, Hawaii quotes, Chicago quotes, Alaska quotes, and Colorado quotes!

More Grand Canyon Travel Resources

Headed to Arizona? Check out how to see the best of the Grand Canyon in one day and the best Grand Canyon puns.

5 Things to Pack for Your Trip to the Grand Canyon

The Lonely Planet Southwest USA guidebook. It can be kind of a pain to find the major guidebooks once you land, or you’ll find them overpriced. I always like to pick mine up ahead of time.

An Unlocked Cell Phone so that you can use a local sim card while here to help navigate public transportation and when you’re on the road. (For people without American cell phone plans).

Backup Charging Bank for your cell phone since you’ll be using it as a camera, GPS, and general travel genie.

A Camera since the Grand Canyon is super photogenic. I use a mix of my Nikon D810 and my Samsung8 smartphone these days.

A Great Day Bag so you can carry what you need with you (like your camera, snacks, water, sunscreen, cash, etc). My current favorite is the Pacsafe Citysafe, which is especially great for Arizona because it has many anti-theft features designed to deter pickpockets. It also transitions to a night bag more easily and won’t embarrass you if you go to dinner directly after sightseeing all day. 

Don’t Forget About Travel Insurance!

Before you leave for Arizona make sure you have a valid Travel Insurance Policy because accidents happen on the road. I pay for World Nomads, and I happily recommend them. It’s especially important to get travel insurance if you’ll be hanging enjoying time in the beautiful (but occasionally slippery) outdoors.

I have been a paying customer of World Nomads for travel insurance for three years, and I happily recommend them.  If you get sick, injured, or have your stuff stolen, you’ll be happy to have the ability to pay for your medical bills or replace what’s stolen or broken.

Pin these Grand Canyon Quotes & Grand Canyon Statuses for Your Trip!