So, I have to admit, when Google Earth first showed up, I spent hours searching the globe for all the places I’ve always wanted to visit. Not only did I realize that I need to brush up on my geography, I also found that many places were just fuzzy dots that made it hard to really see anything. But hey, I could travel around the world!

Well, Google Earth has come a long way since it first came out and it seems they keep adding high resolution imagery daily. In short, Google Earth is becoming a great trip planning tool on so many levels!

A little while ago I was trying to describe the trade route on the Middle Teton to a friend who was fairly new to town and wanted to get up in the mountains. After a few terrible napkin sketches and unfolding a tattered topo of the park, my friend still looked confused. Then it occurred to me: Google Earth!

I fired it up, zoomed in and in a matter of minutes my buddy’s face was no longer confused but excited. Since then, I’ve also used it to find businesses in road trip desinations, show visiting friends free camping areas/places to check out, scope out new routes or just check out worldly places I want to go.

So let’s check out some of the basic ways you can use Google to plan a trip:

First off, if you don’t already have it you can download Google Earth here.

Seeing that Google is the king of search, start off by using the search feature to find the general area of travel (example: Jackson, WY, Denali National Park, Mount Everest). Once you hit “enter” on the search, you’ll start flying to your destination. … Now comes the fun part.

All the navigation can be done with your navigation tool which shows up in the right hand part of your screen when you move your mouse. Try playing around with all the sliders and such: You can zoom, drag the compass to orient the map different and, best of all, you can drag the top slider to switch to a 3D view.

Once you get to your destination, you can save it as a placemark which Google Earth will store for you. Say you want to draw out a basic route, try going to “Add > Path“. You’ll get a cross hair which will place a waypoint each time you click. Each waypoint is also mapped to the ground elevation so when you’re looking at the path in 3D, it follows the contours of the land.

Now that you’ve done all the hardwork of mapping your route, you can goto “File > Email” to see the option for emailing your info to a friend. Or even try “File > Save” to save your placemark or make an image of your path.

Now, this is just skimming the surface of what you can do, but remember that this is no substitute for a topo map, compass and common sense. It’s just an additional accessory.

To get you started, here’s a placemarks file for some great spots and routes in the Teton area (None of these are terribly accurate, just basic examples).

Dying for more info, check these links!

• http://earth.google.com/
• http://gearthblog.com/
• http://googlesightseeing.com/
• http://www.gearthhacks.com/
• http://www.ogleearth.com/
• http://googleearthuser.blogspot.com/

Do you have any tips or stories on how you’ve used Google Earth? Let us know in the comments!