How Not to Read a Map

Street Smart Naturalist · Jan 23, 2025 · 7m · transcript

I like to think I am pretty good at reading maps. I understand topo lines and can tell a valley from a ridge from a summit. I know to look for scale and that sometimes 39-foot cliffs don’t show up on a map with 40-foot contours. I also know that maps can lie and mislead and that people use them for political or other sinister purposes. That being written, I didn’t expect to question my navigational talents via a small map illustrating part of a Washington State Park. But I was.

Over the weekend, my wife and I stayed in a cabin at Deception Pass State Park, at the north end of Whidbey Island…