Yosemite to Kings Canyon/Sequoia
I know these road questions bug some people, but when all you have is Google Maps, and this site, with all the helpful folks, I find it much better to ask here. We will be leaving Yosemite later thi...
Forum Discussion
4X4Dodger wrote:
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Rand Mc Nally has an excellent folding large scale map of Calif. and the Calif DOT has a great web site that has photos of the roads and tells of all the restrictions.
I personally have very little confidence in either Mapquest or Google maps for accuracy and detail.
There's a level of detail on Google Maps that you can't get on print maps. GM has real 360 deg photos of most paved routes. They are 'sat' views, some high enough resolution to tell what direction cars are pointing. They have contour information that rivals USGS topos. The only road maps that I have with similar contours are in the DeLourme Atlases (2 books for California).
They don't totally replace print sources, or state DOTs. CA DOT maps on length restrictions are valuable if you have a larger RV. DOTs are also great for construction and weather conditions (esp passes).
Print maps are good at distinguishing among road categories, though the same info can be deduced from Streetview. And print maps can be just as out of date. But the best thing about print maps is that they can reside in your glove compartment.
The OPs problem wasn't with inaccurate information, except maybe the out of date bridge images, but with too much detail, and knowing how to interpret it.
The OP also wrote 'Google sends me down...'. We have to keep in mind what any of these routing programs does when we ask for a route - they search possible routes between two locations, and give a few of the 'best' - usually fastest, possibly shortest. The distance calculations will be accurate. Time calculations are subject to speed estimates. They are not based on the vague 'best' or 'easiest to drive in a 50ft rv' criteria that humans might apply.
