Breathtaking beauty of America's greatest natural wonder: Photographer captures incredible moment lightning strikes the Grand Canyon




This is the incredible moment a fierce lightning bolt crashed against the Grand Canyon.



Shrouded in darkness, the breath-taking landscape was shocked into life as mother nature fired the bolt illuminating the canyon walls.



As it cracked against the rocks the bright blue bolt lit up the South Rim of the canyon, considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.



With just the Desert View Watchtower in the foreground, the lightning was perfectly framed by Arizona's most famous landmark .

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Natural wonder: Photographer Travis Roe captured this stunning image last year during a storm in Arizona's Grand Canyon. The lightning struck the canyon's South Rim illuminating the national landmark

The once-in-a-lifetime shot, captured by photographer Travis Roe, was taken last year but has only just surfaced after he submitted the image to the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The DOI, the government agency tasked with protecting US land, water and wildlife, runs an annual photo contest called Share the Experience.

They revealed Travis' stunning entry to the contest has become one of the most liked and viewed photographs they have ever released.



The agency recently became a web hit with its incredible photos, gaining over 40,000 followers on its Instagram page in the process.



The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, 18 miles wide and a mile deep. It was created at least 17 million years ago as the Colorado River and its tributaries sliced through layer after layer of rock cutting their channels while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted.



Stunning: Stars over the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The national landmark is one of the seven wonders of the world







