Chris and I love, love, love to be outside hiking, chasing waterfalls and enjoying the great outdoors. Living in the mountains of western North Carolina affords us a lot of great outdoor opportunities. Recently due to the great warm weather we have been having we have been able to get out in the great outdoors. It has been glorious and has gotten us away from the tv and all of the news that is less than wonderful.
When we are out and about I like to use a few apps on my phone to help identify things and today I am going to share with my readers just a couple of those apps that I have come to love.
First up is PeakVisor. This is a really amazing app. Since we love to check out high places and see mountain peaks in our area it is not always easy for me to figure out what is what. Peak Visor allows you to take a picture and have the “peaks” identified. Quite often I do not have cell service where we are at but I can still see what the peaks are and can import a picture later if I want to to the app to identify peaks.
Pretty great, right? I love this app and am so happy that I found it. I use the free version and it does what I need it to do but there is a Pro Plan that costs a bit that is another option.
Next up is a plant identification app that I love as well. I have several on my phone but my current favorite is called Plant Snap. Again I use the free version but there is a premium version that has a fee but for my purposes I have been more than happy with the free version. See a flower or plant you don’t know what it is? Take a picture and if you can’t access the app (like was my case on our recent hike) due to no cell service coverage you can plug that photo in later and identify it.
Not only does it identify the plant/flower it also gives you options on where to purchase similar items. I imagine that is how they keep this part of the app free but it doesn’t matter one bit to me. I was happy to find out that I did actually know what some of the plants were. With spring flowers just now popping out I am going to keep this one handy.
Do you have any favorite outdoor apps that you use to help you with things? I would love to hear about them in the comments. Remember to Comment for a Cause for our recipient this month – The Diaper Bank of North Carolina.
13 Comments
Leave a commentI don´t have any outdoor aps but that plant identifier would be handy. Thanks.
Super apps! Are there similar apps for birds, rocks etc. What really interested me, in addition to how amazing tech is, is that every peak on a mountain range has a name!
Great post! I love seeing the apps. I have used iNaturalist before, and that’s been interesting. I have a birding app on my phone that I use occasionally as well. My students used to tell me about how they would call in owls by using a bird app (through Cornell, I think), and I have yet to try that, but I would love to do it. Thanks so much for sharing!
Love the apps! Can’t wait to try them out. Wish I knew about the Peak app while in Montana.
I’ve heard about plant identification apps, (usually after I post a picture of something on FB and ask my friends what it is) but never looked for one. Now I have the name of one to try! 🙂 I’ve been thinking for quite awhile now that western NC would be the perfect place to retire to. You have some weather, but the winters aren’t quite as long as here in Michigan.
The Violet’s are so pretty, thanks for posting all the pictures.
Two very good apps to have. It is amazing what we can get on my cell phones now. Some very pretty flowers.
Oooh, I need to download these for our next outdoor adventure. I’ve heard of plant snap before and always forget about it.
I need this plant ID app! How cool is that?
It really is a neat app!
Plant Snap!! Finally I can find out what all this plant stuff is that is happening in my yard!
It’s a really great app! Have fun with it!
Cool! I’ve never heard of either of those apps before. 🙂