Here’s where I capture my (evolving) thoughts on topographic maps.

I’m making lots of hiking trips into the north Georgia mountains lately. Many of these trips include travel on obscure dirt roads, trails, and bushwhacking. Consequently, I’m making use of lots of maps.

Some options:

• USGS quadrangles
• Forest Service Road and Boundary Maps (FSTopo7.5” Quad Maps) - http://fsgeodata.fs.fed.us/index.php
• Google Earth
• http://caltopo.com/ – this integrates Google Maps, USFS, and USGS topos. The USFS maps include trail data not available on USGS.
• Delorme Topo 9 or 10
• Garmin Basecamp
• Garmin eTrex 30 GPS
• National Geographic Trail Maps on the iPad
• All Trails/National Geographic
• MappingSupport.com
• Assorted paper maps I’ve collected through the years
• http://www.macgpspro.com/
• http://topomapsapp.com/index.html - iPad/iPhone
• http://www.gelib.com/store/shaded-usgs-topographic-maps.html - Paid topo overlay for Google Earth. I don’t like the effect on their sample.
• http://mytopo.com/ - custom printed topo maps mailed to you for a price
• http://map-pass.mytopo.com/ - $30 per year subscription access to topo maps
• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mytopo-maps-by-trimble-outdoors/id478007253?ls=1&mt=8 - iPad topo
• http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?useExisting=1 - free topo map online. Very nice, except the colors are too light.
• http://www.topoquest.com/ - viewer that uses data from http://www.libremap.org/