In the winter of 1983, the largest El Niño event on record, a series of "superstorms," battered the West. That spring, a massive snowmelt sent runoff racing down the Colorado River toward the Glen Canyon Dam. As the water filled the dam, worried federal officials desperately scrambled to avoid a dramatic dam failure. In the midst of this crisis, a trio of river guides secretly launched a small, hand-built wooden boat, a dory named the Emerald Mile,...

"That the Grand Canyon would become one of the most visited sites in the world - four million tourists from around the world make the journey to northwestern Arizona each year - must have seemed implausible to the government scientists who first explored it on horseback and in rigid wooden boats in the latter years of the nineteenth century. To persuade government officials of the importance of protecting this unparalled site, great artists and photographers...

"This spectacular National Geographic video takes you on a journey spanning 4,000 years of human history, including the dramatic re-creation of the 1869 Powell Expedition." Includes special behind-the-scenes bonus "The making of the Grand Canyon."