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Computers come to the state's great outdoors ONLINE

June 14, 2007 12:35 am

VIRGINIA BEACH--It's a beautiful day, You've got your hiking shoes on. All you need here at First Landing State Park is an idea of which trail to take.

Surrounded by piney woods, with a cypress swamp nearby and more than 2,000 acres of woods, dunes and sandy beaches, you do what any visitor here does these days.

You walk up to the brand-new computer, housed in a little red-roofed, beige-sided kiosk, and use its touch screen to access everything from GPS trail coordinates to details on where you can find the camp store to buy worms for fishing.

That's right. Computerized information systems are now officially everywhere, from airports to malls to the great outdoors of Virginia's parks.

Just recently Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine heralded the fact that Virginia is the first state in the nation to put these information stations in its wide array of state parks.

Visiting First Landing, one of the first parks to get an information station, Kaine noted that visitors to all state parks will soon be able to use them to get GPS-based trail details, spotting guides for wildlife, extensive data on park amenities, printable guides and maps, schedules and more.

"The amount of information contained in this system really is amazing," Kaine said in a press release. "The system will enhance a state park visitor's stay by providing information on the park, attractions around the park, and even local emergency information. They even assist in making plans for future state parks visits."

I made the trip to First Landing last week to see one of these new-age kiosks and it was pretty nifty.

For 15 minutes or so, I ran through dozens of screens.

Not only do the little info centers have the ability to print out hard copies of trails, schedules and more, they also provide stereo sound and show videos.

"The information is still being developed, but the hope is that you will eventually be able to do an interactive hike on a specific trail on the Internet before you come, then print out a map of that trail to take with you once you get here," said Assistant Park Manager Mark Sandor.

He noted that First Landing actually has two kiosks, one by the information center near the beach on one side of the park, and another at a trail center on the other side.

"Over there, people are more apt to be getting details about the trails and printing out maps," he said. "Over here, they would be more likely to get general details."

Jennifer Higgins, a park interpreter, said she's seen lots of folks using the information kiosks, especially in the evening after the information center has closed.

"We all thought it was neat that we were getting these," she said. "It was like computers had finally made their way into the woods."

Johnny Finch, president of the Virginia Association for Parks, said the kiosks are a big plus. He lives not far from Lake Anna State Park in Spotsylvania County, where he and his wife are active in a friends of the park group.

"They'll be especially helpful in parks where there isn't always someone there to give out information, or to serve visitors at hours where information centers are closed down," he said.

He noted that his group worked to help raise $600,000 to offset the cost of the project, aided in large part by a $300,000 grant from the Dominion Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Dominion Power.

Advertising space also is available and being sold on the information systems.

"Everything from where a local marina is to charter a boat to where to get a room for a night or a good meal near to the park in question," said Finch. "The hope is that the information systems would eventually be self-supporting, or even generate a small bit of revenue."

Those ads are a part of the program still to come.

There's also been the need to solve a glitch or two with the gizmos.

"We've had a few issues with overheating and visibility of the screens in direct sunlight," said Finch. "But those are being solved."