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Garmin topo maps


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I recently purchases a garmin Vista Cx - I'm interested in the topo maps for it - the U.S. East maps. Anyone have or used these, are they worth the money? What kind of detail can I expect. The garmin website browse version of the maps has been broken the last couple of days.

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The US Topo 1:100K is the best you can get for your Garmin for complete uploadable topo map coverage of the U.S. I like having it along with my street mapping (City Select in my case). This topo gives a lot of good added land features and I feel it is well worth the cost. I also have Nat Parks 24K Topo (East) and for my area of northestern NY it adds terrific detailed topo coverage.

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The US Topo 1:100K is the best you can get for your Garmin for complete uploadable topo map coverage of the U.S. I like having it along with my street mapping (City Select in my case). This topo gives a lot of good added land features and I feel it is well worth the cost. I also have Nat Parks 24K Topo (East) and for my area of northestern NY it adds terrific detailed topo coverage.

 

That would be great. If it were so, I would wait for it to come out rather than buying the product already out there

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I recently purchases a garmin Vista Cx - I'm interested in the topo maps for it - the U.S. East maps. Anyone have or used these, are they worth the money? What kind of detail can I expect. The garmin website browse version of the maps has been broken the last couple of days.

 

My experience with topos on the GPS is perhaps a bit different that Timpat's.

 

Everyone is welcome to their opinion, here's mine, feel free to disagree.

 

I find the topos on the GPSr not all that useful. I think part of reason is the screen is too small to really get a good gauge of the topography. The 1:100k maps are a little sparse on details to begin with, and then cutting out a 2 x 3 inch piece of the map to show on the screen, you get even less.

 

Some trails are included in the Topo USA maps, but few of them are correct. There are more small streams marked in the topos than in the street maps, which has helped me out on occasion.

 

For trip planning and to look at tracks after the fact, I use more detailed topos on my computer (I am a big TopoFusion fan, but the National Geographic maps are also very nice). In trip planning, I will use the detailed topos on my computer to mark my intended course and then download this to the GPSr. I can then use that track as a guide. If we have to go off course, I still know where I have to get back to. When we are headed off grid, I take a paper map and compass with me anyway.

 

I’m sure many users find their topos very valuable. I’m indifferent to them. Nice to have, but I don’t use them as much as I thought I would before I bought them. Now a s 1:24 map set might change my mind …

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