Floating the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon (photo credits: Arizona State University and Smart Sparrow)

Arizona State University and Smart Sparrow have teamed up to create free immersive tours of the Grand Canyon that you can enjoy from wherever you are. The three tours provide close-up, 360-degree views of the Grand Canyon, its history, and some of its mysteries.

To get started, go to the Virtual Field Trips website and browse the tours available from the slideshow. Currently three tours are available. Then click or tap the big green button, “Click here to explore this iVFT”, to select the tour you want. The tours opens in separate tabs.

The first tour, “Unguided Exploration”, lets you select places you want to explore in the Grand Canyon along 280 miles of the Colorado River. Also watch videos of scientists describing the geology and natural history of the area.

The second tour, “The Mystery of Blacktail Canyon”, examines the intrigue of this canyon and how it might have formed. It’s a side canyon at milepost 121.

The third tour, “Layers and Superposition”, focuses on the stories the layers of the Grand Canyon’s walls reveal, the animals that lived at each layer, and key geologic concepts.