Canyon

You can now explore the Grand Canyon without even being there.

Thanks to Google Maps, panoramic images of the famed canyon went online today, displaying more than 75 miles worth of trails and surrounding roads.

Just by moving your mouse or swiping your finger, you can wend your way through any of the trails to marvel at some of the amazing images captured by the Google Maps team. One view guides you along the Blue Angel Trail, another takes you past the Colorado River, and a third pops you a couple of hours away to gaze at Meteor Crater.

The … Read more

Soon enough, visitors to the Grand Canyon will be able to get an early look at what awaits them, courtesy of Google Maps.

Google published a blog post today highlighting the maps team's current trip to Arizona, which marks the first time the company is using its "Trekker" camera system. … Read more

MISSOULA, Mont.--There were two points Sunday when I had absolutely no idea what time it was. It wasn't that I didn't have any timepieces. Rather, I had several, and they were all telling me different things.

The first time it happened, I was on my way up to the top of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area in western Idaho at 7,400 feet above sea level, as part of Road Trip 2009. From high up there, it is possible to see four states: Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Down below, in Riggins, Idaho, where I'd … Read more

If you take one search tool and combine it with another, does it make a better product? In the case of Search Cloudlet and Surf Canyon's new creation, the answer is yes.

On Tuesday the two companies put out a new custom search engine (cloudlet.surfcanyon.com) that uses both technologies, and allows users to do enhanced searches without having to download additional browser extensions. Previously both products required the use of add-ons to augment Google's search results.

The benefits of using this tool over Google alone are numerous. For one, you're still getting Google's standard … Read more

Teaching your search engine to return results more focused on your online habits and preferences is a bit easier with this Internet Explorer add-on. By clicking on its results, Surf Canyon "learns" your preferences and focuses subsequent searches accordingly.

Surf Canyon loads into the IE search field at the right end of the URL bar along the top of IE's window. Accessing it is simply a matter of selecting it from the drop-down list of search engines built into the field. It functioned well in our tests, returning results quickly. We liked that by clicking the icon … Read more

Save time when you surf with this smart add-on that offers further recommendations based on your searches. We found its recommendations very helpful.

The program's Options menu allows you to enable specific search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Craigslist. You can also choose the maximum number of recommendations (up to five) for the program to fetch. A tiny bull's-eye icon appears next to each search result and it leads to a list of recommendations. Each recommendation was valid and relevant to the test searches we conducted. We could even drill down within the recommendations to keep … Read more

CHINLE, Ariz.--Of all the places I've visited on Road Trip 2007, I don't think any have been quite so far off the beaten path as Canyon de Chelly.

This is a truly wondrous place. For nearly 5,000 years, people have lived in these canyons among four mountains sacred to the Navajo. Even today, the Navajo still live here.

Still, the reason most people--including me--come, has got to be more about the scenery than the history, sad as that may be.

Truth be told, I had never even heard of Canyon de Chelly until reading about it … Read more

GRAND CANYON WEST, Ariz.--If you've never walked on air, you should come visit this place.

This is the Grand Canyon Skywalk, a bridge of glass that juts out over the Grand Canyon and will make your stomach clench up.

Or worse.

But it is one of life's great experiences: to be in the air over this natural spectacle, and I highly recommend a trip out here.

I will be posting a full story and photo gallery of my visit here as part of my Road Trip around the Southwest, so please stay tuned for that. But in … Read more