Welcome to VirtualParks.org

VirtualParks.org is the result of over 24 years of hiking, exploring, and shooting panoramic photography. Since 1995, millions of people have visited this site and gotten a glimpse of what it's like to visit incredible wilderness locales such as Mt. Rainier, Kings Canyon, Crater Lake, Yosemite, Banff, Zion, The Three Sisters, the John Muir Trail, and hundreds of other parks and natural areas.

Ways to filter the panoramas:

Getting Started

We're glad you stopped by to check out VirtualParks! The easiest and most fun place to start is with the gallery of most striking scenes.

Viewing scenes - Virtualparks.org scenes were built with QuickTime, so you would need to have QuickTime installed to view them. The days of browser plugins have largely passed by; another option is to visit our other site VRlog.com which features a different high resolution html5 compatible 360 panorama every day.

Remember, this site is run by the Art of Geography, which is not part of any agencies that operate state, local or national parks.

News

VirtualParks site redesigned

It is an improvement over the last design which dated back to 1995. Some of the features include:

The new layout is responsive, meaning it works better for mobile devices.
Content has been updated
Cleaner, simpler user experience
Page header features actual panoramas
Expanding the page expands the header panoramas wall-to-wall

Previews of new panoramas online

Panoramic scenes that have been shot but are not in virtual reality format yet can be seen in the headers of various pages of the site.

Recently stitched panoramas

Sauk Mountain, Washington

Sunrise approach to Mt. Rainer, Washington

Mt. St. Helens snow, Washington

Blue Lake, Washington

Government Camp snow trails, Oregon

Tumalo Mountain, Oregon

Header panoramas backstory

#1: Sauk Mountain

Getting to the top of Sauk Mountain is a steady and long climb, but the views of the Skagit River valley, Skagit Bay, the Salish Sea, and the vast stretch of the incredible North Cascade mountain range makes it worthwhile.

#2: The Thorofare

In the entire continental USA, the Thorofare is the last place left where you can get more than 20 miles from a road. It's a 30 mile backpack to get to the spot pictured along the Yellowstone River.

#3: Brown Creek

Brown Creek -- in one long summer twilight I shot a dozen panoramas amongst some of the most beautiful ancient redwoods.

#4: Tumalo Mountain

The snowshoe up Tumalo Mountain was no picnic, but the views of Mt. Bachelor, the Sisters and Broken Top were the best I've seen in the Bend area. My friend Lance is looking south towards Shasta. There was a constant 30-40 mph wind blowing that day.

#5: Moraine Lake

You have to get up at 5am to get the good shots of this lake in beautful British Columbia without hundreds of people standing around blocking the 360 panoramic view.