Best Topo Site I've Found Yet

[BigJesse]

So I'm planning on doing some hiking soon and wanted to mess around with land navigation. I scoured the innerwebs looking for good topo maps. I went through a lot of sites and I found this one: http://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=38.8,-98.4&z=5&b=t

It has multiple different topo maps to choose from. Everything from historical maps, 1885-1915, 1915-1945. Which by the way are extremely interesting, comparing the shifts in rivers. Not only that but you can add multiple overlays and change the opacity of each one so you can essential have a hybrid top/satellite/road map with slope shading, whatever your heart desires. It takes some getting used to and isn't the most user friendly one but man is it awesome.

You can click "Print" in the upper right and "Create a PDF" so you don't have to print it right away.

Here is one I made:

Lampasas Topo1.jpg

[Pointman]

Pretty decent site although the maps are somewhat old. I looked at the area where my personal space is located and it looked to be about a year old. The trees were in dense foliage like the satellite image was taken from last summer. The adjacent land that they started developing several months ago showed no sign of activity. I couldn't find a way to get a more current map. Guess you could use Google Earth for that if need be. I like the way you can use layers for overlay.

[saustin1967]

I have always USGS, can do the same thing, download PDF maps and print them on color printers.

https://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/b2c/dis ... 4ROOT)/.do

[BigJesse]

I have always USGS, can do the same thing, download PDF maps and print them on color printers.

https://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/b2c/dis ... 4ROOT)/.do

saustin, are they free? I can't seem to find a free download/print on there.

[saustin1967]

I have never paid for one

Navigate to the link and scroll down to Map locator and downloader
from there navigate to your map, double click to zoom
once you are on the map you want to download switch to point mode and drop a pin , like say on the Island.
Click the pin and it will give you all the maps available and options to view or download.
The download will give you a zip file with a pdf of your map in it. I print mine on my color printer using tiled printing with overlap and cut marks. Lets me use a single page or cut the pages and glue/tape together for a larger map.

I was going to attach one, but it is to large, like 25 MB

Here is a screen shot of the pdf open

Screenshot 2014-04-09 15.24.58.png