You can now explore Philly’s parks and trails via Google Street View

From May to October of last year, employees of Philly’s Parks and Recreation Department donned 50-pound backpack and camera and hiked some 400 miles throughout the city. Their mission: To become the first major U.S. city to document all of its park trails and attractions for Google Street View.

Now, anyone can explore Philly’s many parks and sites on their computer, the parks department and Fairmount Park Conservancy announced yesterday. One hundred parks and points of interest in Philly are available for exploring on Google Street View, including all of Fairmount Park. Some 50 miles of trails in Montgomery County are also included.

To capture all of the sites, which include the Philadelphia Zoo and hidden gems like Boxer’s Trail, employees Conor Michaud and Gint Stirbys donned the Google Trekker backpack, which include a 50-pound camera. As the duo walked Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., the camera constantly recorded images of their every move.

After months of doing this, they sent all of their images to Google in November. Google then spent the last few months editing and uploading the data before officially making the trails and parks viewable to the online world this week.

Check out some of the sites below. Happy exploring!

Boxer’s Trail

Shofuso Japanese Garden and House

Pavilion in the Trees

Philadelphia Zoo

FDR Park

• Take a Virtual Tour of PPR Facilities with Google Trekker! [Parks and Rec]