- story by Lisa Monti
Thanks to new footage made available by Google’s Street View Trekker, anyone can be a virtual online tourist in places that are not all accessible by car. Users can use their computer to "turn around" at any spot for a 360 degree view. Think virtual reality tourism.
Visit Mississippi Gulf Coast, the coastwide tourism organization, was instrumental in the venture. Its staff members wore the Trekker camera-equipped backpack at each site in Hancock County, as well and in Harrison and Jackson counties. In all they filmed around 40 spots, capturing the views from every direction. Not surprisingly, given our watery location, loads of footage was captured from boats.
Using Google Map links, you can click your way to the end of the Garfield Ladner Pier in Waveland, to the top of the Silver Slipper’s parking garage to peer out over Bayou Caddy and take in the natural beauty ofMcLeod Park and the Jourdan River by boat. You also can glide around Old Town Bay St. Louis’ streets and explore the exhibits at Infinity Science Center.
More footage from the Mississippi Gulf Coast will be added at a later date. For now, below are the locations that you can “trek” around at your own pace.
Gulf Islands National Seashore
the L&N Depot
Front Beach Drive in Ocean Springs
Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge
Pascagoula River Audubon Center
Biloxi Town Green
IP Casino Resort
Beau Rivage
MGM Park
Biloxi’s Visitors Center and Lighthouse
Fort Massachusetts
Bayou Heron
Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
Pascagoula’s Beach Park
Various Katrina sculptures
I-110 Loop Walk
Oak Grove Birding Trail