Don't fancy trekking into the Grand Canyon? New Google images now allow you to take a virtual tour.
Watch Google's video of how the images were gathered below
It seems no place on earth is now too remote to hide away from Google’s camerawork.
The depths of the Grand Canyon are the latest isolated location to be captured and released to the public by the internet giant's increasingly intrepid team.
The huge natural chasm that gapes across the sandstone landscape of Arizona is one of the world’s most recognizable formations, and a US national park.
Now, you can witness and travel its depths without having to leave the comfort of your swivel chair, thanks to a new project called Google Trekker that has mapped more than 75 miles of its trails.
Employees for Google headed down into the Canyon on foot last October, with cameras mounted on backpacks to capture the area’s surrounding landscape.
On the trekkers’ journey into the canyon, they took images every two and a half seconds, highlighting some of the steep switchbacks that walkers must negotiate on the Bright Angel Trail.
Within the canyon, the cameras showed a surprisingly verdant landscape, recording the change from juniper trees to scrub brush and flora skirting the Colorado River.
The images mark out some of the most popular trails in the area, around the park’s South Rim.
In a post on the company's blog, Google said the images are helping to make their map of the area “even more comprehensive, accurate and easy to use than ever before.”
The Grand Canyon is just the first stop in a much wider project Google Trekker project. Google says it would like to use a similar technology to map other forests, as well as the streets of Venice that are inaccessible to its Street View vehicles.
Last year, Google released also 360-degree images of the Great Barrier Reef underwater, and even a part of Antarctica is covered by Google Street View.
See the new Google Trekker of the Grand Canyon in action:
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Unable to see video? CLICK HERE
source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
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