Your exploration sidekick
Put your phone away and let the place you're in do the talking. Kolea narrates the land, the history and the ecosystems as you go.
Three steps to curious exploration
Download what interests you
Choose from over 100 content packs covering everything from U.S. states and ecoregions to river basins, historical markers, and Native American lands. Going somewhere specific? Grab those. Just curious about where you already are? There's a pack for that.
Let it run
Open the app, connect to your audio (car Bluetooth, earbuds, whatever), and go about your day. Kolea works quietly in the background, following your location and telling you about the places you pass through, with no input from you.
Learn as you explore
Cross into a new ecoregion on your morning run? Kolea tells you about it. Pass a historical marker on your commute? You'll actually find out what it commemorates. Enter a different county? Learn what makes it unique. No tapping required.
The park encompasses more than 1 million acres … and includes parts of two mountain ranges … more than 130 named lakes, more than 1,000 different species of plants, and hundreds of species of animals.
From Kolea's Glacier National Park narration
Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo: Robert M. Russell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Hear Kolea in action
Listen to real examples of what you'll hear as you explore. Each narration is automatically triggered based on where you are.
Glacier National Park
Montana
Photo: Robert M. Russell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Southern California Mountains
California
Photo: catlin.wolfard, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Works for all kinds of exploration
Whether you're planning an epic adventure or just taking your usual route, Kolea turns every journey into a chance to learn something new.
Road trips
Eight hours from Seattle to Bozeman means crossing mountain ranges, river basins, and centuries of history. Kolea tells you about the ecoregions, counties and parks along the way: the Cascades, the Columbia Plateau, the Northern Rockies.
Daily runs and walks
Your regular 5K route just got more interesting. Find out which watershed you're jogging through, which ecoregion you're in, or what the town around you is known for.
City exploration
Wandering a new city or finally exploring your own? Kolea tells you about the place you're standing in and the county, river basin and ecoregion around it, plus the history behind a monument or marker where a pack covers it.
Hiking anywhere
Whether it's a bucket-list trail or a local nature preserve, Kolea tells you about the ecoregion you're crossing and the park, forest or wildlife refuge you're in.
The everyday commute
Which watershed do you cross on the way to work? When was this town founded? What is this county known for? Your daily drive just became a lot less routine.
Backcountry adventures
Deep in a national forest with zero cell service? Perfect. Once your packs are downloaded, Kolea works completely offline, narrating even the most remote corners of the map.
Like having a knowledgeable friend in the passenger seat
You know that person who always seems to know interesting things about every place you visit? The one who points out geological features, mentions historical tidbits, and explains why the landscape looks the way it does?
That's Kolea. Except it never gets tired, works in places with no cell service, and doesn't mind if you zone out for a while.
It's an audio companion that automatically shares stories about your surroundings as you move through them, whether you're crossing state lines, walking through a city park, or taking the scenic route home from work.
Kolea doesn't plan your route or give directions. It simply tells you about whatever you cross, wherever you happen to wander.
Not just another app you have to remember to use
Truly automatic
Open it once, let it run. Kolea figures out where you are and tells you about it. You just listen. No need to pull over and search, no reading while walking.
Works completely offline
Download content packs then go explore anywhere: remote forest roads, cell-service dead zones, middle-of-nowhere Wyoming. Kolea doesn't need a connection.
You decide how chatty it is
Kolea speaks up when you enter a new place, like a county, a park or an ecoregion. You choose which packs to download and which kinds of content to hear, so you set how often it talks. Think of a passenger who points things out, not a constant stream.
Made for curious people
If you're the type who wonders "what's that?" while looking out the window, Kolea is for you. If you've ever wished you understood wherever you are better, this is it.
Questions?
- We've got over 100 content packs covering geography, ecosystems, history, and more across the entire United States. Some areas have more detailed coverage than others, but there's interesting content for just about anywhere you go.
- Absolutely! You might be surprised by how much you can learn about places you drive or walk through every day. Maybe your regular route crosses three different ecoregions and two historical events happened at that intersection you sit at every morning.
- You're in control. Kolea speaks when you enter a new place, not continuously, and you choose which packs to download and which types of content you hear. Think of it like a passenger who occasionally points out something cool, not a backseat tour guide who won't stop talking. Sometimes it can get overly enthusiastic, so you can also pause it anytime or adjust when it talks and what it talks about.
- Kolea uses your phone's GPS to know where you are, and GPS uses battery, as it does in any navigation or fitness-tracking app. On a long drive, plug in. On a long hike, keep an eye on your charge. You can pause Kolea anytime.
- Usually not more than a few dozen MB, depending on the pack. You should be able to download a handful for trips as well as a few for your home region. It's way less storage than a Netflix download. The real limit is how much you want to hear from it.
- Over 100 content packs are free, and they'll stay free. A few specialty packs, national parks and national forests so far, are paid. We may add more paid packs over time to help support Kolea, and we expect the free catalog to keep growing too.
- Yep and yep! If your car or earbuds can play music from your phone, they can play Kolea. Also works fine through your phone speaker if that's your preference.
- That's the whole point! Download your content packs while you have an internet connection and Kolea works perfectly offline. We've been in places where we can barely get GPS, and Kolea keeps right on narrating.
- Yes. Love learning about geology but not interested in Civil War battles? You can choose what content you download and adjust the types of content Kolea shares. Want to focus just on natural history during a hike? You can do that.
- Your phone's location is used to work out which places you're in. That happens on your device, and your GPS coordinates are not sent to or stored on our servers. We do collect standard, aggregated usage and performance data (including crash reports) to find bugs and improve the app, and we never sell your information. The full details are in our Privacy Policy.
Stay in the loop
Get updates about new content packs and features. We email rarely, only when there's something actually worth sharing.
Join us on the journey
If you notice anything that isn't working right, or have an idea for making Kolea better, let us know. Bugs, places or topics you wish Kolea covered, small annoyances: it all helps.