National Park Virtual Tours
Google Arts & Culture partnered with five National Parks to create immersive multimedia virtual tours. Each tour includes narrated video experiences from the parks. Viewers can dive a shipwreck, fly with bats, and travel through caverns, among other adventures.
The five parks offering multimedia tours are:
Kenai Fjords, Alaska
Hawai’i Volcanoes, Hawaii
Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico
Bryce Canyon, Utah
Dry Tortugas, Florida
Google Earth and the National Parks Service have also teamed up to offer virtual tours of 31 National Parks. Google Earth has provided this service to help people connect with the outdoors during the Covid-19 health crisis, but virtual services like this can benefit people with disabilities any time. Hopefully more will be made available in the future.
Virtual visitors can view panoramic images of a number of popular attractions and overlooks. Pan with your mouse or click the directional arrows on the image to move around. To go to the next viewing area, click the numbered arrows on the bottom right of the screen, or zoom and pan the map. Google Earth accessibility features includes screen readers and keyboard shortcuts, but the tours are images only.
Always remember that our national parks are stolen land and many of the popular sites hold spiritual and cultural significance for Indigenous peoples. Please engage respectfully, even when visiting virtually.
The 31 Google Earth National Park tours are:
Videos
Olympic National Park – this two hour long tour of trails through Olympic is in 4K HD. The camera work is smooth and the ambient nature sounds are beautiful.
Audio Recordings
Last Echos of Nature – audio recordings from various “sonically special places,” by Gordon Hempton of Quiet Places International.
Support a groundbreaking new resource for disabled people in the outdoors.