Virtual Exploration: National Parks

Since this week is Thanksgiving and everyone is traveling around the country to visit their families, you are sure to have some downtime! And while you are waiting for that turkey to cook, head on over to a computer to receive a virtual tour of National Parks, courtesy of Google Maps and NASA!

Last week, Google Maps unveiled tours of National Parks via street view. My favorite collection is the “California National Parks” collection, which highlights Redwood NP, Death Valley NP, Yosemite NP among others. You can also fly around the “National and Historical Highlights” collection or thousands of others in the entire “Google Maps Views” catalog (from around the world, too!).

Another way to enjoy the National Parks while caught inside because of the Nor’easter (for those of you on the East Coast!) is through NASA’s Flickr page. The NASA Goddard Photo and Video Flickr set “US National Parks Viewed from Space” gives a unique view of a few parks, like the example of Crater Lake NP above.

So, even though you can’t possibly visit all the National Parks on your Thanksgiving break, take some time and fly around the world with Google Maps or view the parks from above with NASA!