How I Make Hiking and Running Overview Videos from GPS Data

I’ve been making these overview videos of my bigger/recent hikes (Grand Canyon Royal Arch Loop, Cirque of The Towers). It’s not hard, these days, to get a bird’s-eye overview reel of your GPS-tracked run or hike with your smartwatch or smartphone. And I find it’s a pretty reminder of the route you took - rather than the route you planned.

Get the GPX files

To start, you need to get the GPS data into a downloadable file format: GPX. If you’re using Garmin, you can Export any activity’s GPX file directly in their web page. If you’re using an Apple Watch or iOS/Android device (tracking using their OS health apps), you should use the GPX Viwewer app to export the GPX file for your workout.

Edit the GPX files

For my long backpacking trips, I will often record multiple “hikes” in a single day (because we stop for lunch or rest or whatever). But I really think of each day as a single hike, so I want to create a video stitching multiple “hikes” together into a single hike. If you don’t need to combine segments, you can skip this part.

To merge GPX files, I upload them into gpx.studio — the online GPX file editor. From there, you can combine multiple segments into a single one and then export the resulting (combined) GPX file.

Create the video

I drop the final GPX file into Rumbo (GPS trails to videos recaps) and generate the video. It has a number of options you can play with and then they send you a link to download the resulting MP4.

Simple Version

If you’re ok paying a bit of money and having a bit less control over what is generated (but arguably a prettier final result), I would recommend Relive: an app you can download to your phone that does most of this and also will include photos you take during the hike/run in the final video output.