My GIS-nerd is showing! 🗺️ In summer of 2023, my friend convinced me to read a sci-fi/horror novel called “Annihilation” by Jeff VanderMeer (my first fiction book in 8+ years!). It was SUCH a page-turner- even Stephen King said it was “creepy and fascinating”. Best of all, the book had a character whose job it was to map Area X. So, naturally, I was inspired to make a map of my own! 🤓
I started off by seeing if someone had already made a publicly-available vector file of Area X. Unfortunately, that search wasn’t very fruitful, but in my shapefile-hunt I found out that Area X (and Annihilation itself) was inspired by a real trail 25 miles south of Tallahassee, Florida! 🌴
I decided to instead make a map that blends the 14-mile Stony Bayou Pools and Picnic Pond Trail in St Marks National Wildlife Refuge with the mysterious (fictional) elements and waypoints from the Southern Reach trilogy. 🙂
🛠️ Tools Used: QGIS, Canva
📍 Data Source: Natural Earth, AllTrails