This post may sound like a commercial or spam, but it is not! Nobody put me up to this post. I'm just a little excited about a new find and can't contain myself. I was recently forwarded a link to this satellite mapping program called Google Earth. If you have seen it before, then you already know how cool it is. I understand it's a very popular tool used in the schools right now but I like using it for fishing and camping exploration and it's totally FREE. I live just east of Los Angeles and there aren't a whole lot of fishing options when it comes to fresh water. This program lets you scan a whole region for just about anything. It is chocked full of layered information on terrain, cities, valleys, lakes, water sources, restaurants, shopping locations, etc... You will be amazed at the image quality if you have DSL or other high speed connection. You can enter an address, or city & state, or just start zooming in on a region. It requires an 11MB download but it is well worth it. See for yourself and you can view your favorite fishing locations in seconds like you have never seen them before. I apologize if you view this post as spam... I love this program!
http://earth.google.com/

Terry G.

I have been using the Google Earth for over a year now....you can download your GPS coordinates in the program, and print images with the waypoints included. Unknowingly i had the "route" tracking feature turned activated on the GPS, and it downloaded a blue "trail" of my last 30 trips. It is real cool, i had been doing a bunch of night fishing and it tracked everywhere i went. I have the subscription to the program which has some enhanced features. I have used the measuring tool to do a yardage book for one of the local golf courses.

Depending on the conditions on when the picture was taken, you can see drop offs and grass lines on lakes. Seems like the images near urban locations have the higher resolution.