We've included the KML files of these trips for you to explore. Many more models are supported in NMEA mode for realtime positioning of your location in Earth. Over two hundred GPS receivers are supported, including most outdoor models from Garmin and many models from Magellan. In Google Earth, use the Tools->GPS menu to import the data. Once you've returned from your adventure, getting the data into Earth on Mac and Windows is as easy as plugging in cable from your GPS (typically USB, but sometimes serial) to your computer. You can see our drive past El Capitan - down to the dead-ends and the sight seeing stops - and even animate the winding roads and the walk at Half Dome using the Touring feature while seeing the roads in full 3D context.

Here's an example of a drive in Yosemite National Park while I was vacationing with my family over the Fourth of July holiday. Whatever your adventure is, you can see it easily in Google Earth. The replay clearly shows our pause at the entrance sign where we stopped for the photograph in the family album, the geocache we discovered at the top thanks to the GPS, and lets us remember going through the tunnel of 175 steps when we lost view of the satellites and the line disappears on the map. I did when I made this hike with my son, and now you can use Google Earth to replay the climb with this KML file. If you bring a GPS receiver along, you can replay the experience. Say you're going on a family climb of Diamond Head in Hawaii. Telling someone that you're tired after a hike is one thing, but replaying that hike in context of elevation change and the surrounding terrain helps deliver the story of your adventure. Using the GPS import feature in Google Earth 5.0, it is now easy to see where you've been. Backpackers often carry units that provide their position on a map while they hike cyclists and runners wear units on their wrists that can record heart rate and wheel cadence information and drivers can record frequently visited places and their journeys.

GPS receivers that record your position over time are increasingly commonplace.

Google earth use usb gps receiver