The campsites and places of interest that I feature on Nationpedia have associated latitude-longitude coordinates in the form of decimal degrees (38.743561, -109.499301, for example). Some of them, especially the hikes, also feature .gpx and .kml files. This page explains how to use these different formats.
I do not provide turn-by-turn directions on the website here because Google Maps and the other software I talk about here does a much better and more accurate job than I ever cold. Instead, the information I give you will help you find the points of interest using apps and software.
Coordinates
Copy the GPS coordinates and paste them into Google Maps. This will show you the exact spot that I’ve specified. On the Google Maps website and in the Google Maps app, you can change what the map looks like between the standard map view, terrain map view, and satellite view.
After pasting or entering the coordinates into the Google Maps app, you can navigate to that spot by then tapping the blue “Directions” button. There are two things to keep in mind when doing this, however. The first is that if the spot is not directly along a road (e.g., something that needs to be hiked to), Google Maps will take you to the general area but not necessarily the exact spot you need to go to. It will take you to a spot on the road that is close to where you want to go, but it may or may not be the trailhead or another place you’d want to start the hike from.
The second thing to keep in mind is that if you’re traveling to a remote area, you may lose cellular connectivity, and Google Maps may or may not have downloaded enough information to get you to where you want to go. For offline navigation, I use the HERE WeGo app (iOS and Android) and the Gaia GPS app (iOS and Android). I use the HERE app to get me to where I want to go on the roads and the Gaia GPS app to get me where I want to go once I leave a road. How to use these apps is beyond the scope of this article, but there are plenty of other support documents and videos out there. You may find other apps that achieve similar results and work better for you.
One more thing about the Gaia GPS app that I wanted to mention is that I use it to mark all of the locations I want to visit on a trip. So I can open the app, see where I am, and also see what points of interest are nearby and where all of the points are in relation to each other. I also use it to record the path I take on my hikes. It’s an incredible app, and although it isn’t free (you’ll need to pay for service to get its best features), it’s cheaper than buying a standalone GPS device and is way, waaay more user-friendly and easier to use than any standalone GPS device.
.gpx Files
A .gpx file is a file that handheld GPS units and certain mapping apps and software can read. It can contain 1) individual points of interest (four waterfalls along a trail, for example), 2) lines that represent routes or paths (the trail to the four waterfalls, for example), or 3) both points of interest and lines/routes (the trail to the waterfalls and the points indicating the waterfalls themselves.
This information doesn’t do you much good without a map to overlay the information on. On your computer, you can open .gpx files using Google Earth or CalTopo (see info below).
On Nationpedia, I provide .gpx files as zipped files. After you download and unzip the file, open up the folder to find the .gpx file.
.kml Files
From a user’s point of view, .kml and .gpx files are basically the same thing. They’re files that contain points, lines, etc. But some programs/software (like most ) prefer or can only read .gpx files, and others (like Google Earth and Google’s My Maps) prefer or can only read .kml files. Where possible, I provide both the .gpx and .kml files for download. Again, the .kml file is a zipped file that will need to be unzipped.
CalTopo
One more piece of software merits mention, and that is CalTopo. This is an incredible piece of free online mapping software. I use it extensively for planning a trip. I’ll make and save a free map and add the points of interest that I plan on seeing to the map. When it’s time for me to leave on the trip, I export the CalTopo map’s contents as a .gpx file that I then open up and save in Gaia GPS.