Displaying trails on Google Earth?

[whans]

Is it possible to see hiking trails on Google Earth?

Google Earth is amazing..... any other hidden features of interest to hikers?

Thanks!

 

[Tom Rankin]

Is it possible to see hiking trails on Google Earth?

Google Earth is amazing..... any other hidden features of interest to hikers?

Thanks!

Usually the resolution in the mountains is not as good as in cities, so I doubt it. But you never know!

 

[Jay H]

I've seen some webpages indicating various objects that happen to be imaged by Google at the time of the satellite pass. Most of them being planes and stuff (Check out Alaska, like say Anchorage, AK, there are lots of small planes you can kind of make out).

Here is a Lancaster (A RAF bomber from WWII) that happen to be caught by Google..

As far as hiking trails, You might be able to pick out fireroads and firetowers, but trails are kind of hard to spot...

Jay

Jay

 

[keepin' on]

it's not google

but NASA has a great google-earth-like-program called World Wind that allows you to switch between Orthophoto and topo maps. I haven't found a way to make them look like the "hybrid" feature of Google maps (topo over a toned down orthophoto).

NASA World Wind download

 

[Keeper]

Google Earth used to have the trails labeled. I just reinstalled with the latest version of Google Earth and can no longer see trails in the White.

 

[BLE]

Maybe not trails, but you can however most definitely see slides, which is oh so cool!

 

[NH_Mtn_Hiker]

but NASA has a great google-earth-like-program called World Wind that allows you to switch between Orthophoto and topo maps. I haven't found a way to make them look like the "hybrid" feature of Google maps (topo over a toned down orthophoto).

NASA World Wind download

I've used World Wind's 1M ortho-images to locate railroad grades, old logging roads, and even abandoned trails...and yes, many current trails show up as well... and having the topo maps handy makes it easy to zero in on stuff.
A major difference between the World Wind and Google images is that the World Wind photos were taken with snow on the ground which really makes trails, slides, etc. stand out.

Edit:
Looks like some of the image sections on World Wind are spring or even summer time photos.

 

[Snowflea]

Is maps.google.com the same? You can definitely see trails if the trees aren't too thick. Click on "satellite"... or "hybrid" if you want roads and some landmarks labelled. Pretty cool stuff. It's free too.

 

[Tim Seaver]

Is it possible to see hiking trails on Google Earth?

It really depends on the trail and the terrain, as well as the map resolution of the area you are looking at. Take a look at the Tableland of Katahdin or say the section between Boott Spur and Washie on Google Earth - the trails and junctions are easily visible.

One of the cool features is making your own "paths" in GE, then "flying" over them using the "tour" function.

Another really neat feature is adding placemarks through the Google Earth Community. You can add descriptions and images of places and upload them to the GEC, and about 4-6 weeks later, what you added will show up as part of that "layer" to anyone who has the GEC layer turned on.

I know, not a very good explanation...take a look at this example, which may help clarify things:

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Number/771756

 

[giggy]

a guy on neclimbs told me about it - trails, not really that I have seen, but I have used it to see gullies, and drainages, slides, etc.... to plan alpine climbs - I have only used it to see things in the pressies, so not sure how good it would be in thick woods areas.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

See this post: http://www.vftt.org/forums/showpost.php?p=168386&postcount=10

I uploaded all NH48 as a KML file, and you can use it for a tour.

Tim

 

[Quack]

There is a sub layer in GE under the US National Parks layer that you can turn on to show the trails in the National Parks. I don't know if it has been set up for all of them, but I have used it for yellowstone and the tetons and it's somewhat accurate. It even lists distances...

 

[Artex]

You can use programs like MotionBased to superimpose bread crumb trails from your GPS over google satellite maps and archive them. I've done that with the trails in the woods behind my house. Works well.

 

[MichaelJ]

Or use GPS Babel to convert to Google Earth format (Keyhole Markup Language) and get results like this.

 

[bubba]

ahhh,Michael, I was wondering what tool you used to do those maps. Like it.

Would it make sense to have a section on Views to post NE waypoints or mtn coordinates?? (or is there already a source for this?)