Garmin GPS - Is there a GPS waypoint directory for California campgrounds?

Author

Is there a GPS waypoint directory for California campgrounds?

B. Peg

2005-06-14, 6:55 am

Haven't located one on Google. I thought maybe the latest Foghorn Outdoors
"California Camping" would have listed the campsites with GPS coordinates by
now but no.

Anyone have or know of a GPS waypoint listing for campsites? The old Garmin
"Roads and Recreation" has some campsites that are no longer as their
software database hasn't been updated since maybe Moses. Their 3-disk Topo
series is totally worthless in regards to campgrounds as is DeLorme's Topo 5
series.

B~

Ron Wong

2005-06-17, 6:55 am

In article <ylrre.950346$w62.131636@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>,
"B. Peg" <bent_peg@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

quote:

> Haven't located one on Google. I thought maybe the latest Foghorn Outdoors
> "California Camping" would have listed the campsites with GPS coordinates by
> now but no.

You haven't made it clear what type of campsites you are looking for but,
if you don't find a directory that lists the GPS locations for California
campgrounds, consider the following:

For California State Parks, the GPS location for all of them can be found at:

http://www.parks.ca.gov/

1. Click on "Find a Park".

2. Under the "Park List" tab, select a park and "go" (for example: Bale
Grist Mill).

3. Click on "Location/Maps" and you'll get a nice map with the GPS
location for the park ( 38.54128, -122,5092 in this example).

If you are considering the National Parks in California, open two windows
in your browser and:

In the first window, go to:

http://data2.itc.nps.gov/parksearch/state.cfm?st=ca

Here you'll find an alphabetical listing of the National Parks in California.

In the second window, go to the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names:

http://www.getty.edu/research/condu.../tgn/index.html

Type in the name of the national park found in the first window and
initiate a search (for example: Lassen)

If a list is produced, click on the appropriate site (Lassen Volcanic
National Park in this case)

You'll get the GPS location in DDDMMSS and DDD.DDDD among other things

If you are looking for commercial campgrounds as well, check out
"camping.about.com":

Click on "Find a Campground Resources for the USA"

Click on CA

You'll find links to Private campground directories and web pages. If
addresses are listed for the campground, then a search on "maporama.com"
will get you a map with the GPS coordinates.

Lots of luck.

ron

rkharvey@verizon.net

2005-06-17, 9:55 am

Garmin's Mapsource City Select and Metroguide North America includes
campgrounds/RV parks in their "points of interest" category. Its
probably neither complete nor up-to-date though, but more so than whats
found in R&R. Doing a 25 mile search from my home produced zero results
in R&R, but 77 hits in CS, of which 11 were actual places where you
could rent a space to pitch a tent or haul a trailer/RV in. Looking
over a listing I find some very curious entries included. I.e., health
clubs, scout camps, child care centers, boarding schools, etc.

Bob

B. Peg

2005-06-17, 4:55 pm

><rkharvey@verizon.net> wrote:

quote:

> Garmin's Mapsource City Select and Metroguide North America includes
> campgrounds/RV parks in their "points of interest" category.

Interestingly enough, I do not see that category in MapSource with U.S.
Topo, Roads and Recreation, City Select 6.0, or Metroguide U.S. I did see
in Place Category that Recreation was listed, but nothing in Place
Subcategory pulls up Campgrounds? Most all searches pull up parks and golf
courses, no campgrounds.

quote:

> It's probably neither complete nor up-to-date though, but more so than
> what's
> found in R&R.

I found around Manzanita Lake in Lassen N. P. that both "Topo" and "Roads
and Recreation" listed Manzanita Campground ( a large one) but it is not in
"Metroguide" nor "City Select 6.0." City Select seems to be the worse at
leaving out campground information. I would have expected to see
campgrounds in Topo but it is really sparse.

Interestingly enough, we were at the BLM office the other day and some of
their maps do not list campgrounds either, although the National Forest maps
do. Theirs are sort of a topo map of sorts. The guy at the counter was
bragging about all the maps they had but out of seven we asked for, they had
zero. He said you needed to go online and buy them. No luck. The Gov's
map purchase office is Prescott, AZ and their online website is merely a
print-out form you mail to them to get the maps mailed back. The online
map shops have many U.S. gov maps but they double the price and charge a
high shipping price to get them quicker.

quote:

>Doing a 25 mile search from my home produced zero results
> in R&R, but 77 hits in CS, of which 11 were actual places where you
> could rent a space to pitch a tent or haul a trailer/RV in. Looking
> over a listing I find some very curious entries included. I.e., health
> clubs, scout camps, child care centers, boarding schools, etc.

Same here, but less campground info.

I did recently learn that DeLorme's Topo 5 has campground information that
you can download for free (USACamprounds.exe) via their NetLink tab in the
program and it installs all U.S.A. Campground waypoints that you need to
turn on to see in the program (Advanced settings). There's a lot of them
and I think they were updated in 2003-2004 so it may be the most current
thing out there for those interested.

B~

B. Peg

2005-06-17, 4:55 pm

> "Ron Wong" wrote:

quote:

> You haven't made it clear what type of campsites you are looking for but,
> if you don't find a directory that lists the GPS locations for California
> campgrounds, consider the following:
> For California State Parks, the GPS location for all of them can be found
> at:
> http://www.parks.ca.gov/
> 1. Click on "Find a Park".
> 2. Under the "Park List" tab, select a park and "go" (for example: Bale
> Grist Mill).
> 3. Click on "Location/Maps" and you'll get a nice map with the GPS
> location for the park ( 38.54128, -122,5092 in this example).

Thanks Ron for the info. I did find I can use MapSource (almost any of the
programs) and get general State Park locations, just not campground sites.

quote:

> If you are considering the National Parks in California, open two windows
> in your browser and:
> In the first window, go to:
> http://data2.itc.nps.gov/parksearch/state.cfm?st=ca
> Here you'll find an alphabetical listing of the National Parks in
> California.
> In the second window, go to the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names:
> http://www.getty.edu/research/condu.../tgn/index.html
> Type in the name of the national park found in the first window and
> initiate a search (for example: Lassen)
> If a list is produced, click on the appropriate site (Lassen Volcanic
> National Park in this case)
> You'll get the GPS location in DDDMMSS and DDD.DDDD among other things

Good site. However campground info doesn't seem to be there.

quote:

> If you are looking for commercial campgrounds as well, check out
> "camping.about.com":
> Click on "Find a Campground Resources for the USA"
> Click on CA
> You'll find links to Private campground directories and web pages. If
> addresses are listed for the campground, then a search on "maporama.com"
> will get you a map with the GPS coordinates.

Ah Ha! http://www.camping.about.com/od/findacampground/ and
http://www.camping.about.com/od/ ca...rie
susa/

Looking at it now. Second link looks interesting.

Thanks.

B~

dkl@topowest.com

2005-06-17, 10:55 pm

B. Peg wrote:

quote:

> Haven't located one on Google. I thought maybe the latest Foghorn Outdoors
> "California Camping" would have listed the campsites with GPS coordinates by
> now but no.
>
> Anyone have or know of a GPS waypoint listing for campsites? The old Garmin
> "Roads and Recreation" has some campsites that are no longer as their
> software database hasn't been updated since maybe Moses. Their 3-disk Topo
> series is totally worthless in regards to campgrounds as is DeLorme's Topo 5
> series.
>

1. Go to www.topowest.com
2. Enter the name in the search box at the top of the page
3. Put the state selector on CA
4. Click GO

-dkl

rkharvey@verizon.net

2005-06-18, 9:55 am

"Camping/RV Park" is a subcategory of "Lodging".

NeoCenturian

2005-06-29, 10:55 pm

Ron, thanks for the tip. I recently got a small GPS unit and am now
starting to investigate its possibilities.

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