Yes, the trouble with the Grand Canyon - if there is any trouble with it - is that it isn't so much a canyon as a broad hole in the ground.

We don't get to enjoy the canyon-ness of the place as canyons are supposed to be enjoyed, riding our loyal horse between shaded canyon walls and worrying about sharp shooters on the ridge above. Or have I seen too many movies?

This collection of photos was mostly automatically stitched together and Photoshop software tries to agreeably join the unjoinable by stretching and curving stuff. Hence a view that has the vertical walls curve in. I like the effect. Certainly not what the scene looks like to the eye.

Before the Romantic period in art you read that travellers in the Alps would close the shutters of their coaches rather than look at the bleak and frightening landscape of mountains and precipitous falls. You have to read that stuff with a pinch of salt. But then some early visitors to the Grand Canyon saw it as a useless hole in the ground that would never be worthy of any use.

With the new government's perspective on National Parks I wonder how long before they are building houses down there?