Topo software for Etrex Vista

[+Wildwash]

Any suggestions for best topo software for my Etrex Vista? I assume that current position and nearby waypoints are displayed on the topo. Where is a good place to purchace and what is a reasonable price? Only interested in California at this time. Greatly appreciate any help.

[+Renegade Knight]

If you want the maps on your GPS you have no choice but to get Garmin's Mapsource Topo. It covers the entire country. The best place is used on eBay or here in the GPS Garage sale.

 

Now if you want maps on your computer that's another ball of wax. You can do a lot better on the computer than the Mapsource stuff.

[+Maxine&Me]

quote:

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Now if you want maps on your computer that's another ball of wax. You can do a lot better on the computer than the Mapsource stuff.

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I just purchased MapSource MetroGuide. I haven't even opened it. Are there better options?

[+wickedsprint]

yeah..go get TOPO if you can return it...

[+raouljan]

just remember that TOPO and TOPO! are two different products

 

>Personally Responsible for the Recovery of .00244% of the Benchmark Database!<--watch this number!

[+Alan2]

Both Mapsource Metroguide and Mapsource Topo are great. I use bothe. Metro while driving for auto-routing in my computer then transferring the route to the GPS. Metro provide detail street name and info, points of info and address lookup that you can convert to a waypoint the "go to".

 

I use Mapsource Topo for geographic feature, cpontour lines, trails, streams etc off road while hunting the cache in the woods.

 

They both serve important but somewhat different functions.

 

Good luck.

 

Alan

[peter]

Like Alan I also use both Garmin's Topo and MetroGuide. If I had to choose only one though it would definitely be MetroGuide. It gives very good street maps and assorted points-of-interest and lets you search for addresses, intersections, etc.

OTOH, while Topo does give you the elevation contour lines, it has far worse street coverage. And the topographic information is from the 1:100,000 series USGS maps - acuurate but not very detailed. So I usually want to have the far superior 1:24000 USGS maps along anyway in paper form (printouts available via Topozone, USPhotoMaps, etc.) making the Topo maps in the GPS a bit redundant.

 

The original poster was interested in California maps and Garmin does have another option available for those who hike in particular areas - primarily National Parks and similar. The new 1:24000 Topo-West maps give you much better detail than the Topo-USA maps but only for selected areas - see the list on Garmin's website. 1:24000 Topo-Central and Topo-East are supposed to be out soon.