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lilagray
Has anyone ever figured out the total elevation gain and loss for the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne loop?
If not, is there a good website or something that calculates it for you? I know the big plunges and climbs but am curious when you add up all the ups and downs what the total would be.
Thanks for any help~
Seems like there must be a site out there where you can plug in the loop and get the data... or an app or something. (even though I don't do apps)
Lilagray, I've been doing ok with the free
Gmap Pedometer. You can plot your routes relatively easily (not all trails show up in Terrain interface, and Topo interface isn't aligned well between quandrangles if you zoom all the way in), and it'll spit out distance, total gain, and elevation change when you save your route. You have to go to the "bookmarked routes" link to see the gain sum, but you can visualize the elevation changes graphically on the map itself as well with coarse Y-axis labeling for rough calculation. If you can't use the "automatic drawing for runners" (only works on roads and trails marked in Terrain), you can draw your route manually with straight lines. I use google's terrain feature most, then switch to the Topo if I need to look for feature names, trails not shown in the terrain map, or other such data displayed in topos.
I make no claims to its accuracy, but it has proven to be "good enough" for me. I'm pretty sure you can import .gpx into it, haven't tried yet since I don't use a GPS. I tried exporting .gpx once for use in Google Earth but wasn't immediately successful and not interested enough to pursue it. There may be other free or paid sites or apps that can do this better, but it's worked well enough for my purposes.
David's point is valid to an extent; sure, one can do it manually using good ole 7.5-minute quads. But there are tools available that can save time, especially if you're in the coarse route-planning stage and are looking at alternates (or in your case annotation). If I want detail at home or in the field for going off-trail, I'll use a 7.5-minute US Topo print.