USA Today Readers Name Grand Canyon ‘8th Wonder’
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 11.27.06 | 2:49 PM ET
When we last checked in on USA Today, the newspaper was in the midst of counting down the seven new wonders of the world picked by its panelists. The paper had already proclaimed Potala Palace/Jokhang Temple in Tibet, Jerusalem’s Old City, the polar ice caps, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine Monument and the Internet as new wonders. Since then it has added the final two: the Maya pyramids in Central America and Serengetti Plain, Tanzania. But it seemed that seven wonders weren’t enough. And so it was that USA Today’s readers were asked to vote for an 8th wonder. On Friday, the paper announced that they chose the Grand Canyon.
That puts two of their eight wonders in U.S. territory.
Now don’t get me wrong. The Grand Canyon is grand. I’ve backpacked to the canyon’s floor multiple times—a humbling experience for mind and body.
But you don’t suppose the fact that Americans were voting had anything to do with the fact that they picked the Grand Canyon over, say, Machu Picchu, do you?
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Pete 11.27.06 | 10:46 PM ET
Yea the Grand Canyon is one place to visit I agree with the readers.
Though make sure to visit in the winter when the crowds will be down.
Also in a few weeks the Grand Canyon Skywalk will open over at the Grand Canyon West….wonder if it will take off?
Rich 12.29.06 | 6:17 PM ET
You have got to be kidding, the internet is not a wonder. It should be considered as a great invention, but not a wonder. Wonders are those things that get us out of the house and into the world to explore those fascinations of man and nature, not something that is processed and manufactured for mass capitalistic consumption.