You can download free USGS maps here

I find they print much clearer than those from Topo Explorer. They just don't have all the fancy features.

They do range from old to really new, so check the dates.

Has anyone seen the new 2011 USGS maps? They are overlayed with imagery Another guy had one last weekend, and it was aweful - hard to read the contour lines and to find trails marked on the map (like the AT).

They have some of those online. They are easier to see on a computer screen. They don't print well. You can remove the imagery for printing.

What I really like is the USGS maps without shading. They print much better than the ones from Top Explorer.

The nice thing about the store.usgs.gov site is that you can cache pdfs for maps in your area and then just print them yourself later. The thing that gets people with this, however, is that the underlying size of these maps is the standard USGS map sheet size, much larger than 8-1/2" by 11". What I suggest to actually print subset chunks is to not use the "poster" approach --- which gets you typically 9 sheets of paper to cut and paste. Instead:

(1) Open the .pdf file with the free Adobe Acrobat reader; if you don't have the Acrobat reader installed, it's readily available via web search, just follow instructions to download and install it
(2) use the ‘+’ or ‘-‘ buttons on the toolbar and use the horizontal and vertical slider bars to size and position the current view of the map to show just the subset that you want
(3) On the 'file' menu item, select 'print'
(4) Under 'Page Sizing & Handling' select the 'Actual Size' radio button, and then higher up under 'Pages to Print' click first the 'More Options' line and then click 'Current View'.
(5) Practice with this, playing around with with the sizing and position controls until your “current view” is the proper subset of the map that you would like to print.
(6) Before actually printing, consider clicking on the printer 'Properties' button towards the top of the print dialog box and make sure that you’re printing in color and that the quality setting is set to ‘high’.

Suggestion: After printing out the map subset(s) that you want and before zooming in or out from that same view, scroll down to the bottom of the map and consider also printing out (also as 'current view') the portion that includes the map scale and other legend data at the bottom of the pdf map sheet.


Now, all that said, an easier approach is to go to www.mytopo.com. From there:
(1) Scroll down and look at the lower right of their home page and under "Free Browsable Online Maps" click on the link that says "Start browsing maps"
(2) Left click on the map itself and drag it around, and use the zoom control to the left to zoom in on where you want. (3) When you’re reasonably well zoomed in, look at the upper right of the map to see three adjacent buttons: ‘Map’, ‘MyTopo’, and ‘Hybrid’. Click the ‘MyTopo’ button.
In a few cases, it's been reported that the screen changes to grey here and nothing else is possible; if this is the case for you, stick with the pdf approach via store.usgs.gov
(4) Continue to zoom and scroll the topographic view until what’s showing includes just the part that you want to print. You will need to have an idea of the area that you'll be traveling in to get all of the relevant parts; look at your trip description to find clues about that. Some practice at this will certainly help.
(5) Now towards the bottom of the web page, look for the line that says: “Print from your computer: Landscape | Portrait”. Again, a sense for where your trip will take you will suggest whether portrain (taller than wide) or landscape (wider than tall) will be a better choice.
(6) The result will be a new browser window containing the map portion to be printed. Look this over, and if it's what you want, then use your browser controls to print.

This process is faster/easier because there's no download, you just go directly to the map you want, zoom in until you've got about what you want to print. However, if you cache pdf's on your hard disk, then over time it's probably about as fast and needs no internet access (and the web sites can change in future and you won't care).

Another benefit to the pdf approach is that you can scroll down and print out legend (bottom of map) data; mytopo.com provides very little of that.

Suggestion: however you go, make sure that you're printing in color, and consider changing your print default for this map to be a high quality image in case that's not the norm for your printouts.
If you can't fit your entire trip easily on one such printout, do it multiple times to print out multiple pages.

Tip: use scissors to slightly trim off whitespace margin to slightly shorten the printed pages to fit in a gallon ziplock as an inexpensive, waterproof mapcase.

I really don't understand why people buy paper maps --- it boils down to simple ignorance, I suspect. If it turns out there is a yet-easier or otherwise better approach, I will appreciate in turn if someone will help lift my ignorance a bit further!

Because at about $7.50 a sheet, they are cheaper than printing them myself on my own equipment.

OK--- $8 to $15 per sheet. The price went up.

Brian, that's still pretty neat, thank you for the info.

Oh, seperate note on maps... note the datum the map is in, and (if you use a GPS) the datum that the GPS is set to. If they are not the same, you will probably mark yourself in a different location on the map than where you actually are.

If you don't understand why different datums can result in positional ambiguity, this may help: http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/datum/datum.html

It's not just that --- on a typical trip I might only need to print one or two 8-1/2 x 11 sheets, not a whole USGS map sheet. So for me, at least, even $7.50 was a lot more than I paid to print out relevant parts of a USGS map.

And USGS maps are getting hard to find; at my local REI store, I can still buy Green Trail maps, but they no longer carry USGS maps. I think that the products they sell (primarily NG Topo) is in their mind the new way that folks are obtaining topo maps. Those products can do some useful stuff, such as easily find elevations, do profiles, etc, but for basic use, for someone with any sort of decent color printer, I've got to believe it's cheaper, easier, faster to just print out the specific notebook sized pages that you need, when you need them.

To get usgs maps, I download the PDF. Set the magnification to 100% which is usually 1:12,000

Go to tools, select and zoom, snapshot tool. Highlight the area you want. When you release the mouse button it puts it on the clipboard. Then I paste it into Exel or Word. I also include the scale and the variation.

To protect the map from getting wet, I just put it in a snack baggie which will fit easily in a pocket.

I've found it's just as quick to trace the trail in pencil and put a tick every 1/6 of a mile as it is to do it on the computer.

I can see that, and see the weight advantage of it. But it is hard to get enough territory on a 8.5x11 inch peice of paper to use relevant geography to locate myself if I screw up and end up in the wrong place.

I'm probably going to try out your technique and see how it works. The price of ink may mess it up, however.

Oh, the maps are now print on demand - go to the USGS store on line and order what you need.

Hey, how/where are you stuffing your map? I used to be a cargo shorts user, then I dumped the cotton cargo shorts and lost my map pocket. I'm usually carrying my map is a gallon ziplock, so I'm interested in your solution as to where to stash the map to look at it frequently.

It depends on what I'm doing. On a trail that is well marked, I never look at it.

If I think I'll need it, I put it in my shirt pocket. If it's a sweaty day, I'll put it in my pants pocket.

If I'm really trying to keep track of where I am, I hold it and keep my thumb on my location.

The last is more navigation for fun.

Steadman,

Maybe the way your are orienting yourself can be improved. Try taking a square inch of map where you are in the middle and orient yourself 7 ways from that. A square inch gives you 500 feet in each direction.

The first two way for me are always timing from my last fix and my estimate based on peeks at the map along the way. See if you can find 5 ways from the picture below. You are heading west.

I wear cargo pants all the time, i.e., in "normal" life as well. But not cotton ones, the hiking type of pants.

This time of year folks that wear tall gaiters often stuff them in a gaiter.

Why do people still buy paper maps? I am a proponent of having a collection of "real" USGS maps. Luckily I bought most before they privatized and started charging high prices.

1) paper and print quality- the paper and print quality (at least on the maps I own) are superior to what I can do myself.

2) cost- if you really do an analysis of paper, ink, investment in printers, etc, printing them yourself is far from "free".

3) permanant record- I write trip notes on the back of the maps, draw route paths while I am out and scribble all sorts of useful notes. I am not inclined to throw out my USGS maps, whereas I usually throw out any map I print myself from my TOPO software.

I use both my own prints from TOPO and the hard copy USGS maps. I will take my own poorly printed maps for surrounding areas and take the actual USGS map for the areas I spend most my time. I do mostly off-trail exploring. I certainly see if you do long-mileage trail trips the USGS maps are not as appropriate.

When I wrote my guidebook to the Wind Rivers, I was able to look at route lines drawn on the maps and notes on the back of maps that I had written in the early 1970's. No way would I have remembered such details if I did not have these maps as records. Some of my USGS maps are 40 years old and still going!

I cut off the white margins and tape the edges with invisible Scotch tape. On some older maps I have had to also Scotch tape the fold seams.

Call me retro, old fashioned, or whatever, I LOVE MY USGS MAPS!!

Wanderingdaisy,

Your post makes me want to buy a USGS map for one area I hike in often. Thanks.

I can match up the map to what I'm seeing, but if I'm really hosed up, I need to do sightings to landmarks and triangulate position. It is hard to do that if most of the other physical features are off the map.

Interesting responses to this. Generally when I tell or show people in person that they can print their own maps for free, they're pretty happy to hear that this is an option. Just goes to show that there are always different ways of looking at things.


Personally, if I'm "really hosed up", I'll use a GPS or walk until I get to some identifiable position, but what you're saying is correct of course. What I don't see me or most folks doing very often is unfolding a large USGS map and laying it down on the (for me at least often wet) ground in order to do that sort of long sight line azimuth shots to triangulate. In fact, even with an 8-1/2 x 11 subset, I can often find features to sight on. I just almost never do it (my personal outdoor experience is more typically on established trails, but even when not ...).

The other issue with sighting on relatively far-away objects, where I live at least, is that so often I'm in trees, or the fog/cloud level is low so that visibility is often not that great. Still have to navigate somehow.

Rats, the above could be taken to suggest that I'm looking for an argument, and I'm not. The point is certainly correct, just for me personally, it's also typically not relevant. Another case I guess of "each to their own" !

And YOU SHOULD! I have a huge collection of the things, along with topo maps of mexico. I even have a flat-file of sorts for them. My wife would like to see me git rid of them, but it will be a long time before I let them go. Period. I usually make tear/water proof copies of the regions I am going from the originals.

I'm with WD on this. I too have a map collection on which i have scribbled and scrawled for eons. My pride is the set of maps covering some turf (Channel Islands) when I realized I would be working there for a long time. I waterproofed the quads, cut them up into rectangles that would fit easily into a map case that could ride easily in my pocket, and bound the pieces together with Chartex so they would hinge easily. I used them hard for fifteen years and when I retired they went into the park archives, scribbles and all. I will be going out again this June, and I think I will try to get them out on one more trip.. I have gone to computer printed versions and they just aren't the same,but there must be a computer mode to reliably accumulate the info that one gathers when wandering out in the woods.

Sigh...a good proportion of my USGS maps are so old they were fifty cents each. Remember when you could special-order them printed on fabric? The Seattle main library had the complete state set printed on fabric, nicely organized in map drawers.

Now, what was my point?

Cheers,

I remember that Rick! I used to make my own by putting them on cloth ( I think like oldranger did) and waterproofing them. Good stuff...

Oh, I probably won't need to unfold the entire thing, just enought to see what I need to see to associate the terrain and take some sightings. Which is more than I can get on a 8.5x11 on a sheet of paper, centered on the loop I'm doing for a weekend.

I'll go out like this, but I like the extra security of the larger map.

I'm going to try out what you suggested with printing them out myself the next time I go, but I'm still not sure how, with the cost of ink and paper, if it is going to be cheaper.

Lighter... yeah, probably.