While, Disneyland souvenir books, have always located this attraction in their Main Street section and while the images and animals in the diorama seem more suited to Frontierland the beautiful Grand Canyon Diorama is actually situated in Tomorrowland behind Space Mountain. The diorama lines one interior wall of a long tunnel that sits along the perimeter railroad track just east of the Main Street Station. Like many other attractions in the park the Grand Canyon Diorama was inspired by a Disney movie in this case the Oscar-winning 1958 documentary Grand Canyon. As in that documentary the diorama pairs visually stunning images with the clip clopping of horses to portray the On The Trail passage from Frede Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite.
The Grand Canyon diorama presents a 90 second pass along one rim of the immense canyon the view includes a sunrise, an ancient cliff dweller ruins, a storm, a 180-degree rainbow and a sunset all separated from the train by a wall of glass.Combining a detailed 300 foot wide 34 foot tall background painting with dozens of foreground animals and hundreds of rocks bushes, and other props.
The diorama was touted for years as the longest in the world.With a 1958 price tag estimated at $375,000 it was also most likely one of the world's most expensive certainly it is still one of the world's most realistic.Disney Legend Claude Coates was its primary creator and painter. The painting was done on a special seamless canvas, and it required 4,800 man-hours to complete, using 300 gallons of paint in 14 colors.The diorama is kept at 74 degrees. All animals are real taxidermied animals.
