[2] The music was written as a sound accompaniment for an eponymous scenic video film about the Grand Canyon by Jan Nickman, released by the record label Miramar in 1987 on VHS, Betamax and LaserDisc.

The music on Canyon Dreams has influenced contemporary musicians, including Soulfood, Steve Roach, Matthias Gohl, and Michael Stearns.

The music on the official soundtrack was partially remixed with slightly different running times and features the bonus track "Colorado Dawn" composed by Jerome Froese.

Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, Venus, Vishnu, Deva, Shiva and Brahma have temples here, while Vulcan and Wotan have thrones named in their honor.

Havasupai and Hulapai Indians believed the river was the runoff from an earth-covering flood, much like the one Noah experienced.In March 2009, the album was re-released with a different cover design as part of a series of 60 CD and DVD releases by the Germany-based record label Membran.