Future-Now Trail Guides

Novelist Wallace Stegner boldly called national parks “the best idea we ever had.” And, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns made that the premise of his new PBS film series, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Since we’re all sharing ideas, and the fact that we can openly share ideas is a great idea in of itself, I decided to run with a few of my own ideas to inspire people to explore our parks.

In anticipation of Burns’ films, we (myself and a few colleagues at Backpacker magazine) sent some field scouts into Yosemite, Rocky Mountain, Grand Canyon, and the Great Smoky National Parks with a lightweight quiver of gadgets (gps units, point-and-shoot cameras, and handheld digi-camcorders). Our scouts collected as much inspiration as they could on a weeklong backpacking route. After they returned, we turkey-stuffed all the multimedia content we could into a short movie with 3D maps. The result is what I call a future-now trail guide that’s ready for readers to view on the device of their choice. Plus: Viewers can get turn-by-turn directions to use on their GPS device or mobile phone for extra navigation help when they go on the trip.

Here they are:

The only thing missing in these videos is you. Now, go hike.

Technology Used: Google Earth Pro, ExpertGPS, Trimble Outdoors, Final Cut Pro, various Garmin units, Trimble Outdoors, Sanyo Xacti, various digital cameras