Google is hitting a new low, sending its team into the depths of the Grand Canyon to capture 360-degree images of the landmark.

Google has been to new heights and marched through the jungle in the name of comprehensive, accurate mapping. Now, the company is taking the plunge, heading to the Grand Canyon.

"We're collecting imagery from a place no car, trike or snowmobile has ever been before," Google Street View product manager Ryan Falor wrote in a blog post.

The Street View team used Trekker, a wearable backpack with a camera system on top, to capture 360-degree views of what Falor called "one of the most breathtaking natural landscapes on the planet." The Trekker is controlled by an Android phone and automatically snaps photos as the wearer walks the narrow ridges and steep trails of the famed Canyon.

This week, Googlers are collecting photos from portions of the South Rim at Grand Canyon National Park, including the ridge, the Bright Angel Trail, South Kaibab Trail, and more.

The new panoramic views will be live soon on Google Maps, Falor said, "giving everyone from real-life visitors to armchair travelers the opportunity to marvel at this beautiful, majestic site from the comfort of their computers or mobile devices."

Street View still focuses on local landscapes, and earlier this month , adding 250,000 miles of roads worldwide. Expanded coverage runs through the U.S. and Canada, as well as the U.K., Macau, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Taiwan, Italy, Denmark, and Norway.

Those roads are all accessible via Web and mobile browsers, including Apple's new iOS 6 platform, the browser version of which .

Meanwhile, Google Maps , now covering Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and the San Francisco Bay Area, aimed at helping users orient themselves among local landmarks or familiar structures.

The company also last month with detailed underwater views for those armchair scuba divers.