In addition to the standard image overlays of Map, Satellite and Hybrid for Google Maps, the Active Trails website has an additional overlay button – Topo, for topographic maps. At lower zoom levels, the 1:100K scale USGS topo maps are visible, but if you zoom in close enough, the larger-scale 1:24K maps become visible. Comparing Map, Satellite and Topo overlays, there appears to be a good position match between the three. Active Trails also has placemarks for many kinds of outdoor trails across the country (hiking, biking, equestrian, etc.) entered by site users. You can also install a network link in Google Earth that will let you view the trails there, similar in nature to the new Google Earth layer from Trimble.
Addendum: Fixed the Active Trails links (sorry about that). In the comments, MH points out the ACME Mapper 2.0 site, which is a better choice. It displays black-and-white USGS aerial photos, and also lets you print out a copy of the on-screen map with the push of a button.
Other posts in the Topographic Maps series
- Free Soviet Military Topographic Maps Of Europe And Asia
- Updated USGS 24K Topographic Maps From The US Forest Service
- Identify And Download USGS 24K Topographic Maps In Google Earth
- Mexican National Atlas
- The USGS Seamless Data Distribution System
- Topographic Maps, Satellite Photos And Vector Data For Israel And Jordan
- Free Digital Geographic Data For Canada
- Google Earth Library Now Open
- Google Maps With A Topographic Overlay
- News About “Hey What’s That” Panorama And Viewshed Site
- Two Google Mapplets From The “Hey What’s That” Site
- Free 10-Meter UTM SDTS 24K DEMs
- USAPhotoMaps: Additional Capabilities
- Downloading USGS Topo Maps In GeoPDF Format, And The GeoPDF Plug-In
- Downloadable US Bathymetric And Fishing Maps
- Full Index Of 1:250K US Army Topographic Maps
- Downloadable Updated NOAA Raster Navigation Charts
- Reproject NOAA BSB Raster Navigation Charts And Export Them In TIFF Format
- Topographic Map Symbols for Historic Topographic Maps
- List Of Map Products From the USGS
- New GeoPDF Features
- Topographic Maps Of North Korea
- A Look At The New USGS Quad Format
Great resource. I also wanted to point out that http://mapper.acme.com has a similar feature with USGS topos.
Both great sites.
MH