October 5, 2012

Free Kansas State Parks Pocket Ranger® now available for Android and as mobile website

TOPEKA -- The free Kansas State Parks Pocket Ranger® is now available to more users – just in time for enjoying Kansas outdoors in the fall. The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) has announced that its popular Kansas State Parks Pocket Ranger® is now available for Android and as a mobile website. Previously only available for iPhones, this newest release puts information about Kansas’ state parks in the hands of Android, Blackberry, and feature-phone users. The release also includes the addition of GPS state park trail data.

Linda Craghead, KDWPT Assistant Secretary for Parks and Tourism noted that the mobile app has been downloaded more than 2,700 times since it was launched in May 2012. “The Kansas State Parks Pocket Ranger® app and mobile website are designed to provide information and technology to guide and enhance our visitors’ state park experiences, and to provide added safety and enjoyment for nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts at all of Kansas’ 26 state parks. It’s a fabulous tool,” she added.

Park visitors can now take advantage of state-supplied GPS trail data. Paper maps are a thing of the past with the Pocket Ranger® app’s interactive GPS and GIS Map technology for tracking trails, distance traveled and time elapsed. Marking waypoints and locating landmarks also is easy with these features. Post your accomplishments to Facebook or Twitter when you are done. Users can locate friends within parks using the Friend Finder feature. The Alert feature supplies GPS coordinates to designated contacts in case of an emergency. Guests can also cache park maps in advance so they can navigate the event of lost mobile reception. There is even a tool to help users learn about fish and wildlife game species.

The Kansas State Parks Pocket Ranger® app and mobile website have other tools that make exploring the great outdoors a breeze. Visitors can search for a park using a list of activities or search within a particular region. The Calendar of Events is updated in real time so users can learn about upcoming events for each park, and park rules and regulations are a click away. Reserving a state park campsite or cabin is easy with a few quick clicks using the Pocket Ranger® to secure overnight reservations – more than 340 reservations have been made so far using the Pocket Ranger®.

According to Richard Dubi, CEO, ParksByNature, “ParksByNature continues to strive to deliver the best mobile apps to enhance the user experience. Pocket Ranger apps are free and very easy to use. The safety features and GPS & mapping functions makes this a vitally important tool for all park goers.”

Visit the KDWPT website home page at ksoutdoors.com to download the free app or access the Kansas State Parks Pocket Ranger® mobile website. The app is available on iTunes, Android Market and PocketRanger.com. The Pocket Ranger Mobile Tour Guide tutorial is available at www.youtube.com/user/PocketRangerApp.

For more about Pocket Ranger®: www.pocketranger.com

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