Google Earth Useful?

[+Clan Delaney]

I hope this is not duplicate information, but I found this site that converts the gpx files to kml that you can open up in google earth. Here is the site.

 

gps visualizer

 

I've never seen that before, but I suppose I should have guessed it was out there. Back when Google Earth was still known as Keyhole (not more than a year ago), I cobbled together a program to read .gpx files and output them as .kml. Since then I've refined it to assign specific icons for each cache type (based on the ones used by gc.com) and then each of those icons has a version denoting the cache as found, not found, or owned. UNBELIEVEABLY helpful. I LOVE my Google Earth. It's as much a part of my caching as my Garmin. Sometimes I'll just sit there and browse around with it looking for interesting spots, or getting another look at a place I passed in the car. It's been great for locating new places for caches, measuring out distances, finding caches along a route... and the list goes on.

[+Skidamarink]

I'm new at this Google Earth stuff. How do I get the geocaches to appear on the google earth maps?

 

Go to your "My Account" page on geocaching.com and download the link on the bottom right side. Download Geocache browser in Google Earth

 

http://www.geocaching.com/kml/buildnetworkkml.aspx

[gpsvisualizer]

...and pretty soon I'm going to come up with a way to automate the creation of USGS aerial and topo overlays so you can see things like this:

 

Done: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/kml_overlay

 

(Upload data or specify a point, and it will create USGS topo or aerial overlays for use in Google Earth.)

[smacktight]

I used Buxley's Geocaching Waypoints a year ago or so and found it to be "The Heat"! It made it easy to plan out my geocaching adventure and to get a better lay of the land as to where the caches were located in conjuction to the house. As of the begining of this year, GC.com caches are no longer posted on that web site. I have since stumbled across GE.

 

I do agree to some point that it makes it too easy to find the cache and may take the fun out of it for some, but myself, I think having a mapping system such as GE or Buxley's to help "visualize" the area and location I want to go, is just awesome. (I just don't zoom in too close to maintain some of the mystery).

 

I am in the process of planning a trip to the Grand Canyon and have decided it made the difference between doing some Caching along the way vs. not doing any at all. I'm sure that I spent a quarter of time looking for caches along the route, than if I had done it the traditional way of zip codes through the GC.com main page.

 

I just started using GE and have plenty to learn of it's other capabilities. I'm looking forward to learning and have to agree, at least for me, it goes hand-in-hand with Geacaching as much as a GPS unit. When I decide it takes too much of the mystery out of it, I'll go back to the old way.

[+BigWhiteTruck]

Just read this whole thread, lots of good points.

 

Here's some info that I have discovered when using GE.

 

First thing is the innacuracy of the geocache icons. This is not GE's foult, geocaching.com designed the kml file to be innacurate and move the icons around. I imagine that this is to keep people from using the kml to harvest cache data without pocket queries. Google Earth itself is quite capable of displaying a set of coordinates consistently. If you manually enter coordinates into google earth you will see what I am talking about.

 

About a gpx to kml converter I don't know why you would need one, since Google Earth can open gpx files natively. Just open it with the file dialog, or drag and drop it in.

 

The last poster mentioned making a way to overlay topo maps it's already been done by a keyhole user called 3Dsolar. You can download a kml file that adds this ability to GE here

 

Most of this is covered at this site:

How to use Google Earth to accurately display geocaches

 

Happy caching!

Edited February 27, 2006 by BigWhiteTruck