Hiking in the desert carries special risks. Always carry water, take the 10 Essentials, choose routes of the appropriate difficulty, tell someone where you are going, tread lightly on this fragile land, and please respect the wilderness and the other people out there. Choose hiking areas from a map or from the following list. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
A Note about GPS Coordinates I provide longitude, latitude, and UTM coordinates to assist people who use global positioning system (GPS) units. I provide longitude and latitude coordinates for roads and trailhead locations because these coordinates are more familiar and are the default system in vehicles. For trails, I provide UTM coordinates because this system is based on a rectangular grid that is more useful for plotting points on maps and calculating distances. I hike with a GPS unit and record my movements. I then use the GPS data to estimate trail distances, plot points and routes on maps, and determine elevation profiles. My methods are simple and straightforward, but using GPS data, my distances often differ from official maps and other publications. In part, the differences are due to vagaries in the GPS system such as position errors (horizontal and vertical) due to poor satellite constellations, reflections, and obscured views of the sky (e.g., trees and narrow canyons). These errors should produce small differences between my data and published sources, and to some extent I can correct for these problems. In other cases, the differences are due to the rerouting of trails over the years that are not yet reflected on the maps. In these cases, my data can be quite different from published sources. The default map datum used on GPS units sold in the U.S. is WGS84 because it is modern and more accurate than older datums. However, the local USGS topo maps are based on the older NAD27 datum. Therefore, all of my route descriptions use NAD27 to match the maps. Given the precision necessary to find trailheads, the map datum used for finding roads and trailheads doesn't matter too much. When hiking, however, the two datums differ by about 200 yards around Las Vegas, so you will get close, but not exactly there using WGS84. If you want to match the USGS topo maps and match my coordinates, set your GPS unit to use the "NAD27" or "NAD27 CONUS" map datum. See The Problem of Map Datums and USGS Topo Maps for details and an example. All coordinates and distances presented here are approximate. Although I take care to prevent mistakes, if something seems wrong, assume that I made a mistake and use your own good judgment. Unless otherwise stated, distances "from Las Vegas" are measured from the Spaghetti Bowl (the intersection of Interstate-15 and Highway 95). |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thanks for coming to visit! © Jim Boone; Last updated 080706 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|