The Grand Canyon was known to Native American peoples for thousands of years before any outside “discovery.”
European “discovery”
The first recorded Europeans to see the Grand Canyon were a small group of Spanish soldiers led by García López de Cárdenas in 1540, sent out from the expedition of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado in search of the legendary Seven Cities of Gold. National Park Service and historical accounts therefore usually credit García López de Cárdenas with the first European sighting, while noting that Indigenous peoples had long inhabited and revered the region.
