Translating aerial imagery to real life w/little western experience!

[hawkman71]

I've been hoping to get a tag to hunt antelope out west next year and have spent a bit of time looking at different units, deciphering regs/PP/tags/draw odds, etc.

I've spent some time, planning around in Google maps, trying to get a picture of the landscape and am often surprised if I'm given an opportunity to go to "Street view" - that the landscape looks different than expected. There have even been a few cases where at first glance, I had the valleys and ridgetops inverted in my mind. It took a second to see the networking of stream channels. I think that's a trick played on my mind by the shadow created at the ridgetops. I'd the imagery at one location is taken in the morning and another area is taken in the afternoon, the shadows can truck you into thinking what's up and what's down.
Of course I've seen a lot of different habitat on YouTube videos. There is such a diverse landscape across WY and MT (to name two).

I admit, I think I'm looking forward to experiencing the landscape as much as the hunting.

How many of you have been surprised by what you saw when you got there?

Don't get me wrong, I'm a GIS guy and spend considerable time with aerial imagery for agriculture (my work) but also for hunting and fishing where I live (East coast).

 

[Muledeerhunter406]

I think you're over thinking the whole antelope hunting thing

 

[TreeStandAthlete]

mountains are big. Like...really big.

I'm even often surprised when putting boots on the ground on new public here in the Midwest. That's why e-scouting can never replace in person scouting.

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[TL406]

Set your vertical scale to 1.3 or so on google earth pro, standard google earth display makes everything look smaller than it is. May even go up to 1.5, I go back and forth.

 

[SneakyThunderCat]

There's alot more nooks and crannies out in antelope country than you think. E-scouting is helpful, but can't replace boots on the ground.

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[String&stick]

For a fun time your should look at some Colorado high country or Idaho high country on Google earth, convince yourself it's a good place to hunt. . . Then show up and poop your pants a bit when you see how steep it is!!!

It's a great time!

For antelope, use Google earth, pick some general areas and then get out there and see. Also if there are some attractions near by with photos of the land look at Google earth then look at the photos to compare.

 

[Ca_Mike]

I’ve hunted one area in Colorado for 20 years so I know it well. Every year before we head out we pick out two or three spots on Google Earth that we want to go check out during scouting. We still get surprised by how different things look on the ground compared to what we believed it to look like based on GE.

 

[RS_Non-Res]

Logging roads are not elevation contours.
Screwed me up badly several times during a week chasing elk.

 

[EastHumboldt]

Fookin’ steep. Olluvit. Where I hunt there’s areas that don’t look bad on google earth but boots on the ground you can hardly stand upright. Learn to read topo maps and compare. Anywhere the terrain is so steep the brown lines run together… only goats and sheep can navigate that shit. And me.

 

[jbsmith1]

No amount of e-scouting can prepare you for just how thick blowdown can be.

 

[ODB]

As a guy who grew up in east, also working in mapping, and who has lived in three different western states for 23 years now, I can tell you what you see on the screen does a horrible job preparing you for what you will find on the ground. This happened this year on a moose hunt and literally yesterday morning when I scouted a new area for some birds.

I’ve even been quite fooled looking at an area from a distance of many miles.

 

[WCB]

Use Google Earth NOT Google Maps. Also double the size and steepness, depth, width, etc of any hill, mountain, ravine etc. Use mapping tools as an idea.

 

[hawkman71]

I think you're over thinking the whole antelope hunting thing

Probably! Never done it.

mountains are big. Like...really big.

I'm even often surprised when putting boots on the ground on new public here in the Midwest. That's why e-scouting can never replace in person scouting.

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See response to yours with the next quote.

There's alot more nooks and crannies out in antelope country than you think. E-scouting is helpful, but can't replace boots on the ground.

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I'm East coast and can't put his on ground. I have zero points as of now so I could consider my first trip a scouting trip!

Use Google Earth NOT Google Maps. Also double the size and steepness, depth, width, etc of any hill, mountain, ravine etc. Use mapping tools as an idea.

I'm a big Google Earth user. I know I said Maps, which I use as well. I have probably downloaded and layer all sorts of maps into it for another hobby - metal detecting.