March 25, 2004

  • A few 'blogs back I mentioned recreation.gov. One of the other egov sites linked to from there is byways.org, which is a database of info about the DOT/FHA's National Scenic Byways.

    It works much the same way as recreation.gov, but it has an added bonus: There's a place to write down your travel experiences on the byways. Also, the maps are excellent.

    As a good example, Trail Ridge Road/Beaver Meadow Road, through Rocky Mountain National Park, which is one of the best drives on the whole of the planet.

    Also interesting is the way the photos and other digital media are organized. Which is to say, they're completely organized. You can create personal collections of images you wish to download. The problem is that they haven't quite worked out how to deal with copyright and licensing issues, so you only ever see ridiculously small thumbnails of images, and you can't actually download your collection. But it's nice that the infrastructure is there, accessible to the public, and the licensing stuff will eventually (we hope) get worked out.