Re: Why Google Maps shouldn't be trusted...

I wanted to know the approximate mileage from the Hodgdon Meadow Campground to the Pohono Bridge, so I decided to use Google Maps and entered Hodgdon Meadow Campground, Yosemite National Park for the start point of my trip and Pohono Bridge, Yosemite National Park for the end point of my trip.


The following is the route that Google Maps suggested that I take:

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Uh, try again Google.

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That would be an interesting trip. One time we were walking around Yosemite West and a car kept going past us over and over. We finally flagged them down and asked if they were lost. They said that they were going to Hodgdon Meadows Campground and their GPS told them that you could get there by driving through the bottom part of Yosemite West.

The directions from Yosemite Village, CA to Perth, Western Australia, Australia, look OK.

That is crazy. I had to switch it to bicycle to force it to give me the correct route for driving.

A friend's GPS also wanted to use Old Coulterville Rd. So I'm not surprised Google would too.

I think this is the problem. When I modified the route to take BOFR by dragging the mouse from the suggested route over to BOFR, I got the following warning in the directions that Google listed:

Turn left onto CA-120 E / Big Oak Flat Rd
This road may be seasonally closed

So because Google thinks this portion of Big Oak Flat Road might be seasonally closed, it suggested the alternative (which included navigating the Tuolumne River).

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When I look at that area in Google Maps, I see several roads mislabeled "Tuolumne River". I'm guessing that the computer was trying to send you over them, not the real Tuolumne River (which doesn't run south of 120 anyway).

I guess if I studied the Gmap topo of that area I might eventually be able to figure what the real names of those roads are. I'm not making plans to work on it anytime soon, though.