Explore Colorado with Google Trekker cams

Google’s Street View Trekker camera was introduced three years ago, but I didn’t discover it until today in a story about Trekker sites in Colorado. Trekker cams, it seems, let you tour places on Google Maps that are not accessible to automobiles. It requires that individuals packing special 60-pound Google street view cameras hike and photograph the locations.

Google kicked off the program at the Grand Canyon in 2013 when ten Googlers and five Trekkers spent three days capturing the main trails on the canyon’s South Rim. Since then, Trekkers have photographed locations all over the world. Tourism boards, non-profits, universities, research organizations, or other third parties that can gain access and help collect imagery of hard-to-reach places can apply to borrow Trekker cameras.

Thirty-two locations in Colorado, from Estes Park to Garden of the Gods, have been videotaped, edited, and downloaded onto Google Maps. I’m looking forward to “hiking” many of the locations: