Google travels to the Grand Canyon in the name of Street View

Those crazy people at Google are at it again. This time, it’s in the name of Street View. Earlier this month, we saw Google Street View updated to refresh 250,000 miles of road. It seems that roads aren’t all the Street View team had cooking, as they are now hiking the Grand Canyon.
In order to get good 360 degree footage of the Grand Canyon, the Street View team has to trek through the Grand Canyon to obtain the images. Just think, most people do this as a vacation. Street View is doing it for work to benefit us couch explorers out there who want to see it all through our computer screens.
The team is using a piece of hardware called Trekkers. Not to be confused with Trekkies. These pieces of equipment are carried like backpacks and have a big camera sticking out of the top. Their function? To capture images far and wide of the Grand Canyon that Google can use for Street View. The team controls the Trekkers using Android phones.

When will the Grand Canyon view be available in Street View?

The Google Official Blog has stated that the new images will be up for everyone to enjoy soon. Currently, the team is still wandering around and capturing more images to help make the experience complete.
According to Google’s Official Blog, the team will spend the week gathering images from South Rim, including the Bright Angel Trail and the South Kaibab Trail.
We see things pop up on Google Street View all the time. Usually it is stuff like, well, views of various streets0. It is really cool that Google is going for more things like popular landscapes and National parks. When the images go live, will anyone be taking a virtual hike through the Grand Canyon? Grab the virtual bug spray!