Google Map Tourism
Gill had been suggesting for weeks that, given my obsession with poking around Google Maps finding cool satellite pictures, I should submit some of the cooler finds to Google Sightseeing.
Of course, I never remembered it when I was actually sitting in front of a computer, but tonight finally got around to it.
Just in case they don't get around to posting my submissions, or even if they do, here are some of my favorites. Most of these are in the American Southwest, and are places I've visited either during family trips when growing up, or on a couple of soul-searching voyages into the desert I took while in college.
* * *
Pueblo Bonito, at Chaco Canyon, one of the coolest places on the planet. Official website.
This pueblo was the largest residential building in North America until the construction of a large apartment building in San Francisco in the mid 1800s. It was built around 1100AD, I believe. It's 150m across, 5 storeys high, and at one time contained about 400 rooms.
* * *
A whole flock of volcanoes, near El Malpais, New Mexico. Official website.
I don't know if the number or density of volcanoes is unique, but it's still pretty impressive to see from the ground. The dark part on the right is the Malpais lava flow. They have hiking trails all through it, so you can bring a ring with you and have a Frodo and Sam hike, I suppose.
* * *
The VLA (Very Large Array) radio telescope, between Magdalena and Datil, NM, made famous in the movies 2010 and Contact. Each of the white spots is an individual radio dish 25m across, and there are dozens of them. Official website.
* * *
The infamous Area 51, in Groom Lake, Nevada. (No official website for this one, obviously). This one is one of the few which had already been submitted to the website. Oh well. No big surprise.
Also, check out the bomb-test (I'm assuming?) craters nearby.
* * *
Barringer Meteor Crater, near Flagstaff AZ. As a kid I always wanted to go here. Official website.
* * *
The Trinity Site, where the world's first atomic bomb was detonated.
Nearby, here's a great salt and pepper sort of photo. The black area is the Carrizozo Lava Flow (resulting from a volcanic eruption around 500AD, one of the youngest major lava flows in the US), and the white area is White Sands National Monument, made not of quartz or silica sands like most deserts and beaches, but of pure white granulated gypsum. The view out there during the day is blinding.
* * *
I was tempted to include some more personally significant pictures (town where I grew up, etc), but there's not really much to look at there (unfortunately, that's the primary thing that's interesting about the photo at all, how flat and brown it is).
I still have a certain affinity for the Southwestern deserts, and even if I wind up staying in Canada permanently, a trip down there every few years still wouldn't be a bad idea. In our ridiculously overpopulated world, it's really wonderful to have a place where you can see what it would be like to be the only person on the planet for a couple of days.
Of course, I never remembered it when I was actually sitting in front of a computer, but tonight finally got around to it.
Just in case they don't get around to posting my submissions, or even if they do, here are some of my favorites. Most of these are in the American Southwest, and are places I've visited either during family trips when growing up, or on a couple of soul-searching voyages into the desert I took while in college.
* * *
Pueblo Bonito, at Chaco Canyon, one of the coolest places on the planet. Official website.
This pueblo was the largest residential building in North America until the construction of a large apartment building in San Francisco in the mid 1800s. It was built around 1100AD, I believe. It's 150m across, 5 storeys high, and at one time contained about 400 rooms.
* * *
A whole flock of volcanoes, near El Malpais, New Mexico. Official website.
I don't know if the number or density of volcanoes is unique, but it's still pretty impressive to see from the ground. The dark part on the right is the Malpais lava flow. They have hiking trails all through it, so you can bring a ring with you and have a Frodo and Sam hike, I suppose.
* * *
The VLA (Very Large Array) radio telescope, between Magdalena and Datil, NM, made famous in the movies 2010 and Contact. Each of the white spots is an individual radio dish 25m across, and there are dozens of them. Official website.
* * *
The infamous Area 51, in Groom Lake, Nevada. (No official website for this one, obviously). This one is one of the few which had already been submitted to the website. Oh well. No big surprise.
Also, check out the bomb-test (I'm assuming?) craters nearby.
* * *
Barringer Meteor Crater, near Flagstaff AZ. As a kid I always wanted to go here. Official website.
* * *
The Trinity Site, where the world's first atomic bomb was detonated.
Nearby, here's a great salt and pepper sort of photo. The black area is the Carrizozo Lava Flow (resulting from a volcanic eruption around 500AD, one of the youngest major lava flows in the US), and the white area is White Sands National Monument, made not of quartz or silica sands like most deserts and beaches, but of pure white granulated gypsum. The view out there during the day is blinding.
* * *
I was tempted to include some more personally significant pictures (town where I grew up, etc), but there's not really much to look at there (unfortunately, that's the primary thing that's interesting about the photo at all, how flat and brown it is).
I still have a certain affinity for the Southwestern deserts, and even if I wind up staying in Canada permanently, a trip down there every few years still wouldn't be a bad idea. In our ridiculously overpopulated world, it's really wonderful to have a place where you can see what it would be like to be the only person on the planet for a couple of days.