South Rim, Grand Canyon, AZ

When you approach the Grand Canyon from the south edge, for miles you're thinking: "Okay, so I'm off to see this huge ravine in the middle of the planet. Where the hell is it?"

It's not until you're about 30 feet away from it do you see it, and it takes your breath away. You emerge from the trees surrounding the area and suddenly there is is this rugged expanse of brown and red and orange as far as the eye can see in any direction. Just imagine what the great explorers of the day thought when they stumbled upon this Martian landscape?

What makes the Grand Canyon so beautiful is it's a piece of nature's artwork. Or, if you prefer, you can almost imagine the hand of some deity sweeping down and crafting it. The colours are stunning and no rock formation or stack or gulley is the same as the next.

And of course, anybody who knows me knows how I have no fear of heights. So of course I climbed down about 20 feet past all the tourists and into the Canyon itself, sat on the edge and dangled my feet into it.

You're thinking I'm an idiot, right? It's hundreds of feet deep and I'm perched right on the edge of it, but that's just something you can't say you do every day!

And here you can see the sheer vastness of it! That blue bleariness in the background isn't editing. The Grand Canyon is so vast that the atmosphere between the camera lens and the landscape distorts the colours in the distance like a haze.