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New Mobile App Enhances State Park Visits
By Ann Jarmusch
May/June 2023
California State Parks recently launched a mobile app that features the historic multicultural people, places, and events of nine state parks, including Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. The free app for Android and iOS devices is called Virtual Adventurer, and is billed as an “Interactive Augmented and Virtual Reality Journey.”
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“From storytelling, to holograms, to 3D images and reconstructions, the Virtual Adventurer app offers unique journeys… For example, the public can download and explore Coyote Canyon in today’s Anza-Borrego Desert State Park with Maria Jacinta Bastida, an Afro-Latina woman traveling with the Juan Bautista De Anza expedition…,” according to the State Parks’ news release. You can read it online.
The Old Town San Diego State Historic Park is located on the ancestral land of San Diego’s First People, the Kumeyaay, who were finally honored there almost two years ago with a permanent outdoor gathering space called Iipay ~ Tipai Kumeyaay Mut Niihepok (Land of the First People). Throughout the park, historic buildings, gardens, shops, events, and activities bring to life the converging cultures underpinning today’s large city, including a Mexican pueblo followed by an American frontier town.
“Helping park visitors to create deeper and more meaningful experiences in state parks is vitally important to connecting us all to the rich history of these places,” Parks California Community Engagement Director Myrian Solis Coronel said in the news release.
The other seven parks to choose from on the app are: Bodie State Historic Park, Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, Jack London State Historic Park, Montaña de Oro State Park, Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area (Oso Flaco Lake), Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, and Sue-meg State Park. Plans call for more parks to be added.
Another freebie: Did you know you can use your public library card to check out a free vehicle day-use pass for a visit to a California state park?
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