The Grand Canyon offers extremely dramatic scenes when you catch the right time and light. This panoramic view has captured the yellow-red light of early twilight, few minutes after the sunset, illuminating the canyon, and the blue-purple color of the rising Earth shadow over the east. Above the Earth shadow, another atmospheric phenomenon known as the anticrepuscular rays is formed. An extinct volcano is also visible near the edge. The Grand Canyon in northern Arizona is the longest canyon on the Earth, a steep-sided gorge carved by the Colorado River steadily in about 17 million year time span. The canyon is 446 km long, ranges in width from about 6 to 29 km and attains a depth of more than 1.6 km or about a mile. Date: Nov. 2012