dty

Does anyone know if you can enter an address into a search engine and find out its altitude?

jpearl

Google Earth actually tells you altitude. You can plug an address into Google Earth, and after it goes there, just scroll over it with the cursor and it will tell you the altitude at the bottom of the screen. GE also has a topographical feature that lets you see terrain in 3D, even when skewing the plaqnar view. It's pretty cool to do, especially with peaks like Mt. Fuji in Japan (you can even turn on the roads and follow it up a mountian. Do a search for L'Alpe D'Huez with these feature turned on, it's the coolest thing).

dty

do you know if it is more accurate on certain things. Like there is a dam nearby and it should show a 50 ft drop from the edge of the wall to where the water is.

jtfind

Google Earth is great but not for detailed altitude data. Here are 2 links; 1st is USGS site links page. 2nd is Map Mart site where you can input town, zip code etc and zoom in close enough to read contour lines on a 1:24,000 USGS map. The interface is clunky but it is free.

https://nationalmap.gov/gio/viewonline.html
https://mapserver.maptech.com/homepage/index.cfm

National Geographic Topo is the way to go if you want to do detailed ride planning, its around $100 for your State. Completely customizable, very detailed, easy to read 3D views.

jtfind

Or just pony up for a GPS

stapfam

I googled one of my rides recently to find out how much I had climbed. I do not have as much elevation as I thought. But hold on!! at one point I ride along the top of a cliff that drops down to the sea. It must be at least 300' but google shows the sea at 0 ft and the road I ride at the top at 5 metres.

Don't trust it.

dcullen

terraserver.microsoft.com

enter the address and access USGS topos, and Aerial photos.