An updated global-positioning tool that shows your proximity to every public-beach access point in Florida, as well as information and locations for all of the 171 state parks and trails, is now available to Historic City News readers with an Android smartphone or iPhone.
Are you interested in useful information to help plan upcoming springtime trips to the beach and state parks? If so, the Pocket Ranger should be your new best friend.
“There’s an app for that,” the Florida Department of Environmental Protection told Historic City News today. “The Florida Park Service Pocket Ranger app provides users with the location of more than 2,000 public coastal access sites; as well as a depiction of their proximity to the user’s current location.”
Using funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Florida Coastal Management Program created the Coastal Access Guide which is housed within the Pocket Ranger smartphone app.
“Almost 300,000 people have downloaded the Florida Pocket Ranger mobile app for their iPhone or Android phones,” said Florida Park Service Director Donald Forgione. “We are pleased to offer this new GPS feature to showcase beaches and state parks near the user where they may enjoy Florida’s famous sunshine and natural resources.”
The Pocket Ranger app also translates Florida’s beach-flag colors, includes links to a weather site, and provides a “Good to Know” button that links to a surf-zone forecast, rip current information, and a hurricane information page.
Pocket Ranger allows you to maximize you outdoor adventures with:
- Educational information, amenities, maps and directions
- Real-time calendar of events
- News, advisories and weather alerts
- Social networking and photo sharing
- Potentially life-saving alert feature
- Advanced GPS mapping features
- Recall, post or share saved data
- Friend Finder
- Built-in compass
The app provides a comprehensive list of beach access points in each county, and the amenities each access point offers, including boardwalks, parking spaces, restrooms, picnic pavilions and boat ramps.
Each section features an overview of the coastal counties and includes a list of state parks, coastal cities, rivers, paddling trails and other points of interest in the panhandle, Atlantic coast, and southwest Florida coast regions.
Visitors can search by desired activity to find nearby locations to enjoy hiking, camping, boating, birding and more. Once there, advanced GPS and GIS mapping technology allows visitors to track and record trails, mark waypoints and locate friends in the area. There is even an option to cache GPS maps in advance to ensure that navigation remains possible in the event of lost mobile reception.
The Florida State Parks Pocket Ranger® app is available at www.pocketranger.com, on iTunes or the Android Market by searching “Official Florida State Parks”.
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