Check This Before Using Google Maps In Wyoming

A couple of years ago, I was hiking with my youngest niece in central Florida. Google Maps could not show us which trail would get us out of the woods and back to our car. It was showing us dirt roads and trails that did not exist.

I had a brilliant idea and switched from maps to satellite. Looking down from space, we had a view of where the trails and roads really were. We were back to our car in no time.

Last weekend, I was with a friend heading out to a Wyoming ranch to watch a branding. We decided to take a back road that was clearly shown on Google Maps. But the route that was clearly defined on the maps was nothing but two ruts that appeared washed out in places.

See the screenshots below of how bad this can be.

We turned around and went back to the paved roads to the ranch that we usually take. At the ranch, we saw two ruts coming down to where we were. I asked a friend who lived there about the road. I was told that it was there many years ago. But it was split up by ranch sales and has been unused for many decades.

I thought about that hike with my niece and turned my Google Maps to satellite view. Then I zoomed way in to have a look at the Wyoming map of the roads we wanted to take. There were places where the old road had washed out. Fences cut up the route, making it impassable. We would have been driving through private property.

NEW RULE! When taking Wyoming backroads that you are unfamiliar with, zoom in with Google Satellite first and follow the route.

Have a look at this example below.

Google Maps Wyoming 1

Pictured above is a road that Google swears is there. Each time I drive by this spot on the paved road, Google says, "Turn left, here." It wants me to turn off Bliss Road, left.

There is nothing there, but a ditch followed by a barbed wire fence.

If I switch to Google Maps, we can see the over lady of the road on the satellite image.

Google Maps Wyoming 2

Let's zoom in and get rid of the map overlay.

You can see where there was once a road at the bottom left of the image. But there is nothing left on the top right.

It turns out that there used to be a road there, but that was a long time ago.

Google Maps Wyoming 3

I'm not sure if it's Google or the state of Wyoming, but somebody needs to clean this mess up.