Canyon

Water falls softly

In cold snow crystals

Onto the mountaintop... So begins Eileen Cameron's poetic rendering of a canyon's creation. Cameron captures millions of years of geology in 38 thrilling lines as she follows the water's journey down from the mountaintop, gaining power and strength with each mile. "Drops that trickle through crannies," become a stream that "cascades through the rocks" and then a river that "crashes through boulders ... digging the river bed, steepening the cliffs." And the canyon is born.

Michael Collier's stunning photographs of the creeks, streams, waterfalls, rivers, grottos and canyons of the Colorado evoke the lyrical beauty and raw power of the canyon and the forces that create it.

Through their art, Cameron and Collier have conveyed to the young reader a feeling of awe and wonder for one of nature's most spectacular creations.