Yellowstone SPOTR

Information on selected Pullouts in 3 areas of Yellowstone NP - Northern Tier (Base, Antelope Valley, Swan Lake), Hayden Valley & Yellowstone Lake East. Standalone functions include Search (by name or a Map location) & Browse. This app also communicates with Yellowstone Wolves apps to relate Pullouts & Wolf Packs.

SPOTR stands for Sights & Panoramas Observed Traveling Roads & alludes to the spotting scopes used by wildlife watchers. Pullouts are designated places where you may pull off the road. The Panoramas show what the wildlife watchers see using their spotting scopes. Sights are physical features that can be seen from Pullouts & might be a large area (e.g., a mountain, meadow, river or forest) or might be a single object (e.g., a tree or a rock). Many Sight names were created by the wildlife watchers to communicate locations of wildlife. Some names used in this app are unofficial & not shown on approved NPS Maps.

Version 5.0 content

• Northern Tier Base - 99 Pullouts, 252 Sights, 11 Maps
• Antelope Valley - 32 Pullouts, 51 Sights, 2 Maps
• Hayden Valley - 56 Pullouts, 104 Sights, 3 Maps
• Yellowstone Lake East - 16 Pullouts, 25 Sights, 2 Maps
• Swan Lake - 13 Pullouts, 16 Sights, 2 Maps

You can select any part on the Yellowstone NP Map & see the section Maps. You can use the Spot Me function to show the current location on Maps used in the app. From the section Maps, you can select a Pullout. Alternatively, you can Search for a Pullout by name. After you select a Pullout, the app presents details, incl. Panoramas showing the Sights there & Latitude/Longitude. You can select the Spotting Scope icon in the app bar to see digiscoped images of selected Sights. You can navigate from the selected Pullout to a different Pullout. For example, you could select Footbridge P/O from the section Map & swipe through the 6 images taken from that Pullout. You could then swipe to either Hitching Post LOO or Soda Butte Cone. There are a few named Pullouts, identified as “Lat/Lon only”, where no photos were taken.

On the Pullout details, you can touch the Yellowstone Wolves icon in the upper right corner. If installed, a list of Yellowstone Wolves apps is presented. You can select from that list & show which Wolf Pack(s) might be seen from that Pullout for that year. Conversely, while viewing a Wolf Pack in a Yellowstone Wolves app, you can touch the Yellowstone SPOTR icon in the app bar. You see the Pullouts in Yellowstone SPOTR where that Wolf Pack might be seen.

You can Search for a Sight by name. The app shows the Pullouts from which the Sight can be seen. For example, you could Search for the Bear Meadow Sight & learn that it can be seen from Coyote P/O, Dorothy’s P/O, Old Road P/O, Buffalo Ranch, YES P/O & Midpoint P/O. You could select Buffalo Ranch & swipe through the 5 Panoramas taken from the Pullout. You could then select any of the other Pullouts.

First-time users, unfamiliar with the names of Pullouts & Sights, should start with the Browse function. You can Browse through:

• Pullouts, starting at the Western-most Pullout for Northern Tier Base & continuing through Antelope Valley, Hayden Valley, Yellowstone Lake East & Swan Lake,
• Sights, in alphabetical order
• Latitude/Longitude list, same order as the Pullouts.
  Choosing each of these Browse functions & perusing the images presented provides familiarity for using the Search function.

Orientations supported
Yellowstone SPOTR supports both portrait & landscape orientations & rotation between them. You might like lists in portrait orientation to see more list items at a time. You probably want the details in landscape orientation to see more of the Pullout Panorama without having to zoom.