More National Parks Available in Google Street View

[Sam Haraldson]

Feel like taking a trip to a National Park but can't leave your computer? Well, it may not be the backcountry but you can now virtually drive the roads through all of the following National Parks using Google Maps or Google Earth.

Everglades National Park (Florida)
Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming)
Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming/Montana)
Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado)
Joshua Tree National Park (California)
Death Valley National Park (California)
Lassen Volcanic National Park (California)
Sequoia National Park (California)
Yosemite National Park (California)

[George Matthews]

Nice! Google does some amazing things.

No doubt that the future will have blue lined trails.

[Brett Tucker]

Thanks, Sam. It'll be interesting to see at what pace Google continues to expand the Street View feature as the cost of gas continues to rise.

PS – Check out Dante's View in DVNP, on a fine afternoon in spring, looks like. Interestingly, the parking lot at this popular overlook is empty.

[Sam Haraldson]

> No doubt that the future will have blue lined trails.

My guess is they'll have some AT thru-hikers wearing helmet cams on the trail by 2009.

[George Matthews]

My guess is they'll have some AT thru-hikers wearing helmet cams on the trail by 2009.

That would be a fun job.

Or they could do it fairly quickly with many people hiking segments. I'd guess that it could be done in 3 days with 29 hikers hiking an average of 25 miles each.

[Devin Montgomery]

Thanks for the heads-up, Sam. That's pretty cool, and I'm a big fan of a lot of what Google has been doing lately, especially the free tools they provide.

Here's an idea I've gotten from the google maps "create your own map" function – On my next long trip, I'd like to bring a camera and GPS so I can plot the positions of the pictures I take along the route and other points of interest (things like camps, water, landmarks). I then plan use google maps to input my route and pictures at their correct positions, then add captions to narrate the trip. It seems like a really good way to anchor the story of hike to the countryside it went through.

[Brett Tucker]

>>I'd guess that it could be done in 3 days with 29 hikers hiking an average of 25 miles each.<<

Yep, and best regards to whoever signs up for the Gorham to Stratton stretch. Heads up en route through Mahoosuc Notch please.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1107/473592.html

[George Matthews]

Hi Brett,

Ok, then…

6 days with 29 hikers hking an average of 12.5 mpd

Good link about the AT cameras.

I might get a chance to do a ME section of the AT in July (few days only).

[Sam Haraldson]

> It seems like a really good way to anchor the story of hike to the countryside it went through.

Devin,

There are some pretty good outdoor blogs out there that are doing just this sort of thing. I'm planning a trip right now in which I use a combination of Google maps and GPS Visualizer to plan my itinerary.

I create a path in Google and save the .kmz file which I in turn upload to GPS Visualizer to extract elevation data thereby creating me a trip elevation to length profile. It's all a very cool way to build excitement and get a feel for the terrain you'll be walking.

And, as you eluded to, it's also a great way to remember and re-live the trip

[Devin Montgomery]

Thanks Sam, that is very cool. I figured I wasn't the first to have the idea, and I'll have to check out those blogs to see how others have done it. Are there any particularly good ones that you can point me to?

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