IVRPA webinar: “Behind the Scenes with Virtual Yosemite”
March 25, 2023 – The IVRPA (International Virtual Reality Professionals Association) hosted a 90-minute in-depth interview with Virtual Yosemite author and photographer Scott Highton, looking at the production and ongoing development of his landmark online tour.
The project – first released in July, 2019 – remains one of the most comprehensive and popular VR tours on the internet.
Click here for the complete video interview and transcript.
Pano2VR in the Wild: Virtual Yosemite
March 15, 2023 – Garden Gnome Software, publishers of Pano2VR interactive VR tour software, featured the Virtual Yosemite interactive VR web site in their Pano2VR In The Wild online series.
Click here to see the full review.
KZYX’s “Point and Click Radio” (NPR) features interview with Virtual Yosemite author Scott Highton
January 12, 2022 – Point and Click Radio hosts Jim Heid and Toby Molina presented a half hour in-depth interview with Scott Highton, author and producer of the pioneering Virtual Yosemite interactive VR web site, about the incredible project that allows online viewers to explore hundreds of high-resolution interactive 360° photos of locations throughout California’s Yosemite National Park.
Click here to listen to the program, or to read the full transcript.
November, 2021 – Thrillist ran an article by Nicoletta Richardson featuring Virtual Yosemite’s coverage of “Snowliage” – the combination of fresh snow during colorful fall foliage displays.
For a featured 360° VR panorama view of Leidig Meadow and Sentinel Rock under “snowliage” conditions in Yosemite Valley, click here.
See the entire article here.
Dan Gentile |
Virtual Yosemite – Sentinel Dome
VR photographer Scott Highton has created an incredible love letter to Yosemite with an online site that shows over 220 different locations within the park, including high resolution interactive panoramas.
See full article here.
Yosemite National Park is one of the oldest parks in the United States. It’s also one of the most beloved. Located in California, the park offers stunning views of cliffs, mountains, lakes, glaciers, and meadows. Now you can visit the sprawling park from the comfort of home with Virtual Yosemite. The interactive online tour was created by virtual–reality photographer Scott Highton. It lets nature lovers experience more than 200 locations in Yosemite and its surrounding areas, in all seasons. Popular attractions include Yosemite Falls, one of the worlds tallest waterfalls, and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, which is home to more than 500 ancient sequoia trees, including the Grizzly Giant. It’s believed to be about 2,700 years old.
LOCAL // BAY AREA & STATE
‘Virtual tourism’ is suddenly everywhere in coronavirus era. Will it stick?
All images: ©2018 Photography by Scott Highton – Courtesy of Virtual Yosemite
As the world waits out the coronavirus pandemic, leisure travel is on hiatus and people are glued to their screens, searching for ways to explore the physical world.
The concept of “virtual tourism” is suddenly being promoted and tested on a global scale. “You have hundreds of thousands of tour companies and tour guides right now who are really in trouble, and they’re trying to think of creative ways to remain relevant,” said Douglas Quinby, senior analyst at the travel research firm Phocuswright. “They’re trying to bring their experiences into people’s homes because that’s the only place people are right now.”
(Excerpt – Read the entire article here)
Several hurdles stand between culture-starved consumers and VR. The supply of Oculus Rift VR headsets has ground to a near halt along with manufacturing in China. Issues with simulations inducing nausea among users continue to plague the technology.
“Plus, how many people have a room in their house to dedicate as a VR space?” said Scott Highton, a photographer in San Carlos who develops VR projects. “It’s still not terribly practical.”
Still, the virtual tours currently available — most of which rely on 360-degree panoramic photography and video — are showing encouraging returns.
Highton created Virtual Yosemite, which synthesized hundreds of high-resolution landscape photographs into a digital simulation of Yosemite Valley, replete with historic information placards and nature sound recordings. Since Yosemite shut down to visitors last month, site visits to Virtual Yosemite are up 15- to 20-fold, topping out at about 10,000 unique visitors per day, Highton said.
“Just like a real visit to a national park, the experience made us smile and really appreciate the wow factor of the great outdoors,” James Harper of Wales wrote in an email to The Chronicle. Several days into sheltering at home with his children, Harper and his 5-year-old son, Roo, scrolled their way through Virtual Yosemite, exploring Half Dome, Vernal Fall and Sentinel Bridge. “It was lovely to see Roo’s face light up with excitement,” Harper said.
The question facing the broader travel industry during this period of disruption is whether any of these virtual offerings will have staying power or can be monetized after the coronavirus pandemic subsides. It’s anyone’s guess.
“Overall, I personally haven’t seen any virtual tour that has blown me away yet,” Eric Shepard, vice president of Lonely Planet Ventures, wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “I think with continued technology enhancements we will get there. But right now, I don’t see virtual tours as a large revenue driver — it’s more of a free offering to keep people engaged during these difficult times.”
Gregory Thomas is The San Francisco Chronicle’s editor of lifestyle and outdoors.
Email: [email protected] Twitter: @GregRThomas
Gregory Thomas
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Gregory Thomas is The Chronicle’s Editor of Lifestyle and Outdoors, focusing on California activities and destinations. He also hosts the Wild West podcast, which features interviews with environmental thought leaders and adventure athletes (subscribe here). Before that, he served as Senior Editor at Outside Magazine in New Mexico where he edited news, enterprise stories, and features in print and online. He’s worked at a tech-media startup, reported for major metro newspapers, written features for national magazines, and done his share of internships. He holds a Master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley and he’s on Twitter at @GregRThomas.
Syndicated from the Financial Times / Business Live, March, 2020 – by Tim Bradshaw
VIRTUAL YOSEMITE
Created by virtual photographer and former mountain rescue team member Scott Highton, Virtual Yosemite offers zoomable 360° panoramas from 200 spots in and around the park, complete with sound and contextual information. virtualyosemite.org
The Washington Post recommended Virtual Yosemite as “One of 12 historic sites you can virtually tour from the couch during the coronavirus outbreak” (March, 2020)
While parts of the park are still open for the season, those who can’t make it to California’s Sierra Nevada region can still tour the park — complete with sound — and visit some of Yosemite’s iconic landmarks, including the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, the top of the Half Dome and the eponymous Yosemite Falls.
From a USA Today feature – “Social Distancing: Six virtual tours you can take if you’re stuck at home” (March, 2020)
2. Explore national parks
For those who want to surround themselves with nature without the traveling and going-outside aspect of it all, national parks are also providing virtual tours of America’s most popular parks. Virtual visitors can travel through the trails of Yellowstone National Park, as well as the Yosemite National Park.
Feature article about Virtual Yosemite by Dan Novak in Maryland Today. To read the full article, click here
New York Times review of Virtual Yosemite (October, 2019)
October 8, 2019
By Jill Cowan
And Finally …
A moment of Zen — but, actually: An online tour of Yosemite National Park, courtesy of the photographer Scott Highton, who put together the website Virtual Yosemite.
You can click on a couple of hundred points of interest throughout the park and get a 360-degree view of spots like Tuolumne Meadows and the summit of Half Dome — all without leaving your couch.
And if you’re feeling adventurous, the site includes links resources.
The National Park Service also runs webcams for live views of Yosemite.
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Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.
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Review of Virtual Yosemite by George Lurie for the Sierra News. Click here to see the original article.
Review of Virtual Yosemite by Greg Little for the Mariposa Gazette (August, 2019)
List of online national park tours – from teambuilding.com
Here is a list of national parks to visit online (March, 2021).
43. Yosemite
Virtual Yosemite provides an aerial view of the park with zoomable scenic spots. The remote park tour also features a panoramic index for easy navigation to various locales within the preservation, but visitors can click through and rotate the views to explore more organically, as well. Virtual Yosemite presents high resolution images of a variety of landscapes, highlighting the geographical diversity of the land.
Visit Virtual Yosemite.