Google Maps: More Travelers Are Interested In Death Valley Than Yellowstone

Published Date

September 18, 2012

So, are more Americans looking for a vacation in Death Valley National Park than, say, Yellowstone National Park? The folks at Google Maps might have you think so.

The Google Maps folks recently analyzed search results from the end of May to the beginning of September "to gain a sense" of how folks living in North America spent their summer. Curious to know what the top-rated Google Map search was?

Death Valley National Park! Then came Redwoods National Park, Yosemite National Park, and Sequoia National Park. Grand Canyon also was listed.

Yellowstone didn't make the list, nor did Great Smoky, Glacier, Acadia, Everglades, Shenandoah, or any of the 386 other units of the National Park System. A bunch of Yahoos!, perhaps?

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Submitted by admin on September 19, 2012 - 4:02am.

Most probably no one types "Yellowstone National Park" if "Yellowstone" alone gets you where you want to go. Death Valley is a two word name where both words on their own have a meaning so you have to type the full name to find the park. Redwoods alone won't be the National Park, same for Sequoia. Explaning "Yosemite National Park" might be more complicated but there I guess many type "National Park" behind the name because they aren't sure of the spelling and want to be sure to find the right place.

Submitted by admin on September 19, 2012 - 9:38am.

BTW - what is the booming gateway city to Death Valley? Does it get credit for Las Vegas?

Submitted by admin on September 19, 2012 - 3:59pm.

Gateway to Death Valley is considered Baker, CA. You can also get there from Lone Pine, CA. I don't think searches for Vegas count. So these were searches specific to Google Maps and not overall Google search volume? I'm wondering whether it's simply because Death Valley was in the news a lot this summer between unusually heavy precipitation and the resulting washed-out roads, and the recent announcement that it's the hottest place on earth ever.

I don't think you can extrapolate that people searching Google Maps are necessarily planning a trip. That eliminates the possibility that people are merely curious and looking for information, like where it's located, how far from LA or Vegas it is, what's nearby, etc. - not because they want to go there, but just because they want to know.

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