Among the 31 sites that can now be seen via Google Street View are high-profile spots like Buffalo Bayou Park, Hermann Park and Memorial Park, as well as smaller neighborhood spots like the Heights Hike and Bike Trail and the Westchase Library Loop Trail.
“The new Street View images make Houston’s green spaces accessible in a whole new way,” said Tom Bacon, Houston Parks Board chairman, in a press release.
Typically, Google captures images for its Street View platform through cars — outfitted with cameras — that roam the streets and automatically take snapshots. But in the case of the parks and trails, the images were captured via Google Trekker, a wearable, 40-pound backpack that contains cameras and GPS devices used to gather images in areas not accessible to cars.
Houston Parks Board borrowed a Trekker and walked 150 miles of park land and trails to gather the images from November 2014 to April 2015.
The move should help generate buzz around the the Bayou Greenways 2020 project, the Houston Parks Board’s effort to create a continuous park system along all of Houston’s waterways. Bacon says he hopes the project helps the public get a preview of the project’s potential.
Click below for a full list of the parks and trails now accessible via Google Street View.
Bayou Greenway Trails:
- Brays Bayou Greenway Trails
- White Oak Bayou Greenway Trails
- Halls Bayou Greenway Trails
- Greens Bayou Greenway Trails
- Sims Bayou Greenway Trails
- Hunting Bayou Greenway Trails
- Hermann Park
- Memorial Park
- Buffalo Bayou Park
- Arthur Storey Park
- Bill Coats Bridge
- City View Park
- Columbia Tap Rail Trail
- Heights Hike and Bike Trail
- Hutcheson Park
- Keith Weiss Park
- MacGregor Park
- Mason Park
- Revielle Park
- Shady Lane Park
- Stude Park
- T.C. Jester Park
- Terry Hershey Park
- Thomas R. Wussow Park
- Tidwell Park
- Tierwester Bridge
- Tom Bass Regional Park
- Tony Marron Park
- West Houston Trail
- Westchase Library Loop Trail
