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   Augment U.S. National Park Vacations with Chimani's iOS Apps

   Adam C. Engst

   As 2016 dawns, I can't stop thinking about Yosemite and El Capitan. Not
   Apple's operating systems, but the [1]Yosemite National Park and its
   famous El Capitan rock formation from which Apple purportedly took
   inspiration. Designated as a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is
   renowned for its spectacular scenery and biological diversity ' and
   it's only one of [2]the 59 U.S. national parks that are worth a visit.
   But these aren't the sort of places you can just swing through on a
   weekend ' we're talking nearly 52 million acres (210,000 square
   kilometers) and millions of visitors each year.

   So now is a good time to start planning travel and lodging if you're
   considering a visit to Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Acadia, or
   any of the other national parks. In the past, that would have meant
   picking up a guidebook, but that industry has fallen on hard times and
   it can be hard to find an up-to-date title, particularly about the
   lesser-known parks. Information abounds on the Internet, of course, but
   quality varies wildly, and there are no guarantees that details are
   current. Besides, who wants to be navigating random Web sites on an
   iPhone while looking for a trail map?

   Enter Kerry Gallivan. Back in 2008, he was hiking up Gorham Mountain in
   Acadia National Park on a cold, rainy day. He had his iPhone with him,
   but he had neither cell service nor an app that could provide
   information on routes and trail conditions. Chilled and wet, he came up
   with the concept for [3]Chimani on the spot, and founded the company
   with Shaun Meredith two years later to develop offline guidebook apps
   for U.S. national parks. Now, in conjunction with [4]the centennial of
   the National Park Service, Chimani has released the 3.0 version of
   their engine for an overview app and individual apps for 19 of the most
   visited parks. All the apps are free and work on both the iPhone and
   iPad.

   [5]Chimani National Parks, the overview app, contains information for
   the 409 units of the National Park System, which goes beyond the parks
   to include monuments, seashore, historic sites, battlefields, scenic
   trails, and more. The writeups are necessarily brief, but maps and
   links to official Web sites are included, and the images are gorgeous '
   much of it comes courtesy of photographer QT Luong, who has taken
   [6]over 12,000 large-format photos of U.S. national parks. This
   overview app is especially worthwhile early in your planning process.

   The individual park apps are more useful on the ground. Chimani
   currently offers [7]apps for these parks:
     * Acadia National Park (Maine)
     * Arches National Park (Utah)
     * Baxter State Park (Maine)
     * Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah)
     * Canyonlands National Park (Utah)
     * Cape Cod National Seashore (Massachusetts)
     * Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Ohio)
     * Death Valley National Park (Nevada and California)
     * Denali National Park (Alaska)
     * Glacier National Park (Montana)
     * Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona)
     * Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming)
     * Great Smoky Mountains National Park (North Carolina and Tennessee)
     * Olympic National Park (Washington)
     * Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado)
     * Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park (California)
     * Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming)
     * Yosemite National Park (California)
     * Zion National Park (Utah)

   Each of Chimani's apps relies on a similar tile-based interface that
   leads into a hierarchy of information. Where possible, Chimani sticks
   with the same icons as used by the National Park Service on its signs.
   Although sections vary somewhat between parks, they generally include
   an overall map, park information, a photo gallery, lodging, hiking
   trails, bicycling trails, points of interest, museums, picnic spots,
   restroom locations, and potential hazards. The Auto Touring sections
   often contain audio so you can listen to the description while driving,
   instead of making a passenger read to you (be sure to enable the ringer
   on your iPhone first). There's even a section for spots to watch the
   sunrise/sunset (with times and the golden hours for photos, for any day
   of the year).

   [8][tn_Chimani-main-screen-menu.jpg]

   The section tiles are mirrored by a menu you can display by tapping a
   hamburger button at the top left of the screen, if you prefer a more
   compact list ' the menu is also required to back out of a subsection to
   the main screen, although Chimani tells me that will be improved soon.

   Tapping a tile leads to a secondary tile screen listing specific
   articles; tapping one of them displays the article. Content has been
   generated entirely by Chimani, with excellent photography ' tap the
   article's main photo to see others. Not every article has a photo, of
   course, but those I've seen have been lovely. The articles tend to be
   brief, but those associated with places also have maps, and hiking
   trails include icons telling you what kind of trail it is, what
   distance the trail covers, how long it will take to hike it, and how
   steep it is. There's the ubiquitous share button on each article and
   photo, and while planning a trip, you can also tap the bookmark button
   to save any place you want to be sure to visit.

   [9][tn_Chimani-section-and-article.jpg]

   A new feature in the latest release introduces a slight gamification
   aspect to the app. For each article, a plus button lets you record
   visits to that spot, and you earn badges for each visit. It's a nice
   way to keep track of where you've been, but the feature is really
   designed as a bridge between generations ' imagine you're taking your
   kids or grandkids on a week-long trip to Yellowstone and need a way to
   help keep them interested. The apps are location-aware, so when you say
   that you've visited a point of interest when you're actually in that
   spot, your visit is verified, and you get not just a badge for that
   place, but also points toward a Scout badge that appears at the top of
   the main screen.

   Tapping the Scout badge shows the My Chimani screen, where you can see
   all your badges and points. It's a little silly, of course,
   particularly for the articles that provide details about restrooms,
   say, but it might make seeing more of a park palatable to kids, or just
   for the completion freaks among us (hey, I resemble that remark).

   [10][tn_Chimani-badges.jpg]

   Another tile at the top of the main screen is called Viewport, and is
   designed to provide 'augmented reality.' Bring it up and center a point
   of interest in the viewfinder and the app will show you the article
   about that spot ' Kerry Gallivan describes it as having a ranger tell
   you about what you're looking at. It's impossible to test this without
   visiting a park, so I can't tell if it's mostly a gimmick or if it
   would actually be fun to use.

   Of course, all this data is useful only if has been downloaded to your
   iPhone or iPad ahead of time, since many of these areas will have no
   cell service at all. The code and text of the app isn't particularly
   large ' the apps average about 30 MB ' but maps can be big. So big, in
   fact, that Chimani provides three levels of maps. The base level comes
   with each app, and is intentionally broad. When you're viewing any map,