Garmin U.S topo 2008 vs. U.S topo 24K

[jowook]

Hello, I almost placed an order to buy U.S topo 2008. I found there is "U.S. topo 24K,east central and west" which seems a kind of higher version of topo. Would give me some advice what the difference is other than contour resolution and price and map coverage. Thanks in advance.

[Forkeye]

I have Topo USA 2008 ,and Topo National Parks USA 24 k West,you can check Garmins site to find the scale of Topo 2008,I dont beleive its 24 k.There is quite a differance when viewing The Mount Baker National Park out west on both .On the Topo 2008 the contuor interval is 150 'and on Topo N. P. West 24 k it is 40 ',thats at a zoom setting of 200' on the map scale.But in other areas Topo USA 2008 had a contour interval of 50',at the same zoom setting.N.P. West shows more detail in general,I would get both.Topo 2008 shows lots of roads even in small towns so it is a good general purpose map set ,but for back country travel get your National Park 24k one for where you plan to go.

[CenTexDodger]

AFAIK US Topo is 1:100,000 resolution. 24K is 1:24,000, but it only has coverage in the National Parks. If you are travelling in National Parks that is great, out of them, and they are of little value. Also, 24k has routeable trails whereas the US Topo does not.

[+imajeep]

Those are two different products. USA Topo is 1:100K and covers the entire US. The 1:24K product is US National Parks Topo--it only covers national parks and some national forests and recreation areas.

 

 

I use both, but you can really get by pretty well with only the USA Topo. I originally got the National Park topos because they show hiking trails and other details. However, I've discovered since then that Google Earth has hiking trails for most national parks, so I've started using that to plan routes.

[+Grinch & Gremlin]

If you're uncertain of the coverage of the National Parks topo, then you can go onto Garmin's web site and search the map live. I had never bought the National Parks East maps because the closest covered places listed on the label are Shenandoah NP and the Great Smoky Mountains NP. Both close enough to get to, but not my regular spots. But then I looked online and discovered that it also does the entire Appalachian Trail even though it doesn't list that in the description, which was great because that means it includes most of the places I hike. I'm really enjoying the higher resolution maps now and am just sorry I didn't look earlier. the moral is, if you hike in any type of national park, forest, recreation area, monument or seashore, check out the live map to see if the places you hike are included.

[Alphawolf]

The Garmin 1:24,000 are just for National Parks and National Recreation Areas. They are awesome if you have a need. If you have an autorouting GPS, they will do auto-routing on the trails too. I use them extensively for backpacking in Yellowstone NP with my Vist HCx.

 

The US Topo is 1:100,000 scale, or about 1/4 the resolution of the 1:24,000. Still very useable though.

[+hogrod]

I have found that the topo 2008 maps are not consistent with how much terrain detail they show.

 

I think most of my state(Wisconsin) has 25ft contours, yet when I checked the maps near a friends in Wenatchee, Washington it's only using 150ft contours. Even more detailed, the area I live in Wisconsin is using 10ft contours.

 

Anyone who has topo 2008 if you turn your detail level to high and check out this area: N43 00.001 W89 38.994 you can see the line where it abruptly changes from 10ft contours to 25ft contours. The area that has 10ft contours is slightly larger than the county I live in.