Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Google Map Scouting?

I am wondering if a unknown quadrant in Colorado is picked to look at on Google Earth, would anyone be willing or able to look at the map and provide opinions on where, how and why they would approach hunting that area. I do not think anyone wants to use their hunting area for all to see and learn on, so a location can be picked in a high preference point unit, or just a random pick location.

Anyone interested in trying this?

I've went into new areas scouting based on google earth and my 'predictions'. It was helpful but once I was on the ground things were a lot different than I envisioned.

For me, I have a hard time maintaining perception of the size of the place and density of the trees. But after scouting and looking back at google earth, it was very helpful to become oriented the next time in there. I often print out colored copies of the place, compare them with forest service maps and use them in the field.

Another thing, there are a lot of two-track roads that look well traveled on google earth but have been closed in the last five years or so. Google earth will lead you to believe you can drive or 4x4 further than is really possible. Keep that in mind if your headed west this fall.

I doubt that I will ever hunt elk, but that sounds like a very useful learning exercise...

I have tried looking at GE after I have been in an area. I could definitely figure out where I was, but would find it totally useless to try to scout out and area.
What you need to find is the small pockets of coverage, good forage, and the small springs used for water that elk know about. Those cannot be discerned on GE.
I can do better using topo maps and sticking pins in them.

If you pick a random area in a general reg area in SWMT and guess, I would be willing to go there and let you know what I find. It could be an interesting exercise but with no real world data it would be pointless. I do use GE to help get me going in a new area so imo it is a useful tool.

Used correctly, many of the interent resources available to us are viable and worthy methods of collecting data. Starting with DOW hunting data and then using USFS maps, USGS topo's, GE and several websites that provide aerial/satellite photo's, a person can collect valuable info about a hunting area. This info helps familiarize a person with the area and prominent features/terrian identified prior to phone calls made to biologists, wardens and other wildlife professionals.




North is top in both photos. These are photos of two of the best elk areas that I know. You can easily identify swamps, rocky areas, ponds and even individual trees - you name it.

This is the bottom pic as shown on a USGS topo.


With this information you now have a broader understanding of what the terrian is truly like in this area.

Don't your topo maps show details of the ground cover such forest cover ect?

Most topo's do have coloring and symbols. One problem with USGS topo's is that most of them were printed years ago with the terrian as it was then. Though most have been updated somewhat, they usually only show human development with terrian features as they were when first printed. The USGS topo I posted above was done in the 1950's and shows only tundra or white coloring. Clearly the area has many trees and swamps/ponds not shown on the topo.

The point of my post was to show that much useful info can be obtained by an internet search. I have found many pictures of interesting hunting areas posted in blogs or hike descriptions - some have even included seeing game animals.

This is a (on the ground) picture of the area shown above from the net....


The internet is a powerful tool and using it's full advantage can pay nice rewards.

I asked because I am just not familiar with what you guys have to work with. I have seen references to so many different types of maps, but I am not sure what is typically used by American hunters.



No dispute there...it amazes me just what can be glean by some one who is savvy with the Net..

For interest sake, this is fairly typical of what we work with..

Click OS Leasure Maps

Click the X to close the sign in box, the for example type in
SJ 152 381 into the Location box top left and then hit locate.

Once the result comes back, click the box marked "leisure" in the top left of the map box and the view will change to a typical OS Topo map..

If you move the little slider on the right hand side of the map to the max + its a good representation of a typical 1:50,000 paper map over here..I normally use a 1:25,000 as it carries even more detail.

If you select the Ariel view it gives a photo of the area, but it seems to take a long time for the blurring to go..

Pete, sorry I don't mean to come off stern or arrogant. I'm an engineer and writing sometimes comes out to "matter of fact".

I do find it funny to surf "bunny hugger" web sites and find useful hunting info about their "day in the mountains" trip.

Absolutely no offense taken!

Getting back to online sources, what I am looking for is a way to get either a 3D representation of a bit of ground, or the ability to view online aerial photographs stereoscopically..

The Federal Center in Denver used to hold aerial photo's of the Western US in one of the offices. Back in the day and before the net (maybe the 70's ) I would drive down there and peruse photo's with those stereo glasses for an entire day. I would have a heck of a headache after that. Many of my favorite hunting areas were gleaned from those pictures.

I wouldn't know where you could find something like that on the 'net.

Over the years I've acquired some GIS skills and there are a variety of free viewers/software that one can download.

The ones I find most useful have the ability to stack aerial photos, DRG (digital raster graphics or topo maps), and DEM's (digital elevation models), and then render those in 3D. One can make one or more layers transparent so he can simultaneously look through a topo map at an underlying photo or switch focus back to a single layer at a time. Very handy. One can spin or tilt the view to see the country from any angle or elevations. Some even have the ability to do fly overs.

It takes some computing/graphic card power to do that effectively with a couple hundred square miles of country at something like 1 square ft to a pixel, so one will not be doing those exercises with smart phones or pads.

Some of the same software can derive least effort pathways between selected points and those can be downloaded to ones GPS. It makes ones hikes considerably easier too distant points in rugged terrain.

Our party will spend several hours on such endeavors when taking on new country, and we save all the data to DVD's or external hard drives for our repeat areas. It greatly enhances our efficacy and strategies when working big country. We will also print off about a 3 by 4 ft hard copy of the aerial photo and hang that in the wall tent for on site planning.

All of these maps and images can be had for free over the web.

Last, here is a handy link for running down sites. If one is in the barber chair and happens to overhear a reference to something like "Dead Indian Springs" or "Coffee Pot Creek" he can go here and run down its precise location. Found quite a few secret spots with this method.

Locating secret spots

Happy trails,

1minute,

Thanks for the link. One thing to note from the GNIS FAQ:

When you log on, the system adds temporary session identification numbers to the URL, so it looks like this:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=921:10:6315419807150552990

If you bookmark or copy and paste this entire URL with numbers, it will not work in the future. Delete all after the word �gnispublic.� The correct URL is:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic

I'll play, I'm google earth scouting. . Can I get some opinions on this for my future out of state hunt

Pete - You can look at any Google Earth image in 3D. This is better than the old stereoscopic aerial photo method by a long ways. Just drag the icon that looks like a person to the place on the map that you want to have as center and you're in business.

Need help. On the geonames link, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. What's the deal?
Never mind, I got it.