John Muir Trail Maps - Greeninfo Network

John Muir Trail Foundation

GreenInfo team: Larry Orman

Project years: 2018

Tags: Applications Development Environment Government Agencies Interactive Solutions Recreation Website Design

Overview

What challenges is this project trying to solve?

The John Muir Trail Foundation needed maps that could compare the present-day John Muir Trail with the trail's historic alignment

What were the client’s objectives?

Creating a definitive poster and detail maps of the entire 220-mile-long John Muir Trail (est. 1915)

Results

A set of trail maps, including a series of 7 24"x27" detail maps, a special 24"x27" inset map of Yosemite Valley, and a 20"x36" poster of the entire trail

John Muir Trail Maps — One of the maps displaying a portion of the John Muir Trail in Yosemite

The Work

Background

The John Muir Trail Foundation was formed in 2018 to the conserve the John Muir Trail (est. 1915) for people to enjoy for the centuries to come by caring for the wilderness, wildlife and waters along its path in the high Sierra Nevada of California. The foundation came to GreenInfo for help creating definitive poster and detail maps of the entire 220-mile-long trail. Along with a large-scale poster, we created a set of seven detail maps, with highly refined cartography and prominent use of the foundation’s branding. These maps are detailed enough for planning purposes and beautiful enough for visual communications, a balance we strive for in much of our cartographic work.

Process

Using a combination of existing GIS data, raw data points taken along the trail with a GPS unit, and the Foundation’s own research, GreenInfo developed a comprehensive, high-resoultion GIS layer of the present-day and historic trails and surrounding access trails. Producing a variety of maps at different scales ensured that the Foundation could use their maps to talk about the trail at any level of detail, from the smallest issues to broad, general ideas spanning multiple jurisdictions.