Popular WNC parks go virtual via Google Maps

Ever had the urge to walk out on the precipitously perched Mile High Swinging Bridge at Grandfather Mountain, but the actual thought of the first few steps made your tummy do triple pike flips?

Now, thanks to The Conservation Fund and Google Maps, and many conservation partners, you can take that stomach-flipping walk from the safe and steady perch of your couch.

The Conservation Fund and its partners have just unveiled a host of sites across the Eastern seaboard that they hiked, paddled and explored with the Street View Trekker, a mapping tool from Google that allows anyone with a screen and internet access to journey beyond the road for a tour of iconic American sites where The Conservation Fund played a role in permanent protection.

And they chose three of Western North Carolina's spots to be "google-mapped:" Grandfather Mountain State Park (and its infamous Mile High Swinging Bridge), Chimney Rock State Park trails in Rutherford County, and DuPont State Recreational Forest and three of its most popular waterfalls in Henderson and Transylvania counties.

Ann Simonelli, media director for The Conservation Fund, a nonprofit that works to protect land for its environmental and economic value, said the idea came about when one of her colleagues, Jazmin Varela, initiated the idea for The Conservation Fund to look into to the Google Trekker program.

"Jazmin had learned about it as a 'Trusted Tester' and member of the Google Earth Outreach Network," Simonelli said. The Conservation Fund's creative director, Whitney Flanagan, wrote and submitted the original proposal for Trekker. Flanagan took the Trekker for a hike in Delaware at First State National Monument.

"The Conservation Fund works to protect priority sites for the environment and communities. We talked about what locations would be logistically able for us to get out to and which would also be visually appealing," Simonelli said.

Varela, who is based in Chapel Hill, was well acquainted with the natural wonders of Western North Carolina and suggested the three sites to be part of the initial Google Trekker program.

Varela and colleague Reggie Hall spent last summer hauling around the Trekker, a 4-foot-tall, 40-pound load looking sort of like a GoPro on steroids. Simonelli said "it's a pretty hefty thing" that is worn like a backpack. It has 14 lenses on the camera to capture all-encompassing views of trails, woods and streams they hiked to create a digital reflection of the world for people to explore and enjoy.

The result is a virtual tour of eight sites, stretching from North Carolina to Delaware. Now, the fields of Antietam National Battlefield, the waterways of the Chesapeake Bay and the misty caves of North Carolina's Chimney Rock State Park are available to visitors and outdoor enthusiasts across the globe seeking a glimpse of places they might not typically see on the web-based mapping service.

"You can scroll through and click forward, similar to Google maps on a street, and you're able to see a 360-degree view of what they saw on their hikes," Simonelli said. "It's really neat because people who might have never been out there before, can enjoy these places from their computers."

"We hope that panoramic, fully navigable imagery of these places on Google Maps enables people to explore and learn about these sites of historic significance and national pride," said Deanna Yick, Google Maps Street View program manager. "The imagery collected in partnership with The Conservation Fund truly brings these important locations to life."

In addition to virtually walking out on the Mile High Swinging Bridge, you can take a relaxing walk along the waterfalls of DuPont State Recreational Forest, stand at the base of the falls and see the water tumbling down, all while staying warm and dry. Or you can use the Google Maps parks program to research a hike in Chimney Rock State Park to the 360-degree overlook from the top of the Chimney, to a tree-lined trail to see the iconic Hickory Nut Falls, before heading out on an actual hike.

"Chimney Rock Management, LLC and State Parks feel fortunate to partner with The Conservation Fund to offer people around the world a completely new and unique way to experience the beauty of our Park," said Mary Jaeger-Gale, General Manager at Chimney Rock LLC. "It is our hope that by providing a variety of ways to access nature, we'll encourage people to join us in protecting and preserving the precious natural resources we've been given."

"Conservation means including people, not excluding them. Google Trekker enables people everywhere to experience the beauty and significance of the places we protect — even if they aren't able to travel there," The Conservation Fund's president and CEO, Larry Selzer, said in a statement. "As we become more of an urban nation, and as the demographics of our country continue to change, reconnecting people — especially young people — with nature will be less about bringing kids to nature and more about bringing nature to the kids."

Simonelli said she would like to see more outdoors sites Google-mapped, but there aren't plans for any others this year. One of the goals of the Google Trekker project was to celebrate the Conservation Fund's 30th anniversary this year, she said.

"We wanted to celebrate working with federal, state and local partners to protect places that people enjoy year-round, and to give people who can't get out to these outdoor places, an opportunity to see them," she said.

EXPLORE MORE ONLINE

Take a virtual tour of the following sites with The Conservation Fund and Street View Trekker:

• Hike to Extremes at a Natural Wonder: Grandfather Mountain State Park, North Carolina at Mile High Swinging Bridge (Conservation Partners: Grandfather Mountain State Park and Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation)

• Wonder at the Grandeur of Granite Peaks: Chimney Rock State Park, Grandfather Trail to Calloway Peak, North Carolina (Conservation Partners: Chimney Rock State Park, Chimney Rock Management, LLC, Chimney Rock at Chimney Rock State Park)

• Go Wild in the Blue Ridge Mountains: DuPont State Recreational Forest, North Carolina: High Falls; Triple Falls; and Hooker Falls (Conservation Partners: DuPont State Recreational Forest, North Carolina Department of Agriculture)

• Pay Homage to Hallowed Ground of the Civil War: Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland (Conservation Partner: National Park Service)

• Discover The Water Trail That Built A New World: Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, Chesapeake Bay (Conservation Partner: Chesapeake Conservancy)

• Explore the First State's First National Monument: First State National Monument, Delaware (Conservation Partner: National Park Service)

• Get Lost in the Long Island Sound: Farm Creek Nature Preserve, Connecticut (Conservation Partner: Norwalk Land Trust)

• Find Fields of Gold: Connecticut River Valley: Mount Sugarloaf State Reservation, Massachusetts (Conservation Partner: Franklin Land Trust)

To view these sites in Google Maps Street View Trekker, visit www.conservationfund.org/what-we-do/conservation-acquisition/google-trekker.