Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Kayaks in Marble Fork Gorge, Sequoia N.P.

Paul passed this link along to me. I've hiked to Marble Falls, an easy day hike, and this same stream runs through the Lodgpole area of Sequoia Park, but other places are pretty extreme and unaccessible.

From National Geographic's Extreme Photo of the Week

Looking at the Marble Falls map I linked to above, it shows a VERY bizarre twist between topo maps and Google maps. Google maps implies there is a road to Crystal Cave that climbs straight up the incredibly steep mountain slope. It appears they have drawn a straight line between the Marble Falls trail and the old abandoned Colony Mill road that appears as a trail on the topo maps.

To compare, look at the Marble Falls map link, and switch between the "t4 Topo High" choice and "t1 Terrain". The Terrain (or "Map" or "Hybrid") are Google Maps version of the area with this road superimposed.

Here are two embedded Gmap4 maps of the same location:









Here's the Google Maps "Get Directions" to the Crystal Cave location.

There are some odd things about Crystal Cave (right, Steve?) but a vertical access road is not one of them.

Google maps would have (another) gold mine if they ever got it right. Some algorithm probably interpolated this ridiculous route to Crystal Cave. GM does not show any trace of the actual route to the Cave, which intersects just above the toe of the foot-shaped bend in the road just to the north and a little east of the section shown in these maps, shown clearly (at the letter "K" in "PARK") on the USGS topo.

More fun with Google Maps....

Last night I noticed that Google has added the Mountaineers Route from Whitney Portal up to Iceberg Lake to their map system. Let me remind everyone-- It is NOT a trail! Never built, never maintained, just a use path, hard to follow in many places.

Here's a link to the map: Google Terrain view on Gmap4.

Edit: If you switch to "Hybrid" or "Map" view and zoom in one more level beyond what Terrain allows, that MR line is labeled "N Fork Lone Pine Creek Trail".

Interesting delineation of the MT there, too. Hang a U at trail Camp and end at Consultation Lake. Maybe that's what the Consultation was all about: "WTF happened to the trail"?

> Interesting delineation of the MT there, too.

Whoa! That Main Trail was NOT on the map when I posted earlier today. I did, however, log a problem report with Google on their maps complaining about the absence of the main trail. Obviously someone took note and took action.

If only they would just get it right. Now I can better understand how that Girl Scout / Barney Lake got named "Frog Pond"... The Google people working on the maps are sometimes clueless.

Please note, though, in the map link I gave, you can switch between the Google "Terrain" view, and other maps that are completely independent of Google, so you can compare the trail with the other (more accurate) maps.