Garmin continues to slowly add more and more states to their vector-based 1:24K US topographic map coverage. The latest release covers the central mountain West, Colorado and Utah, joining sets for Washington and Oregon as well as California and Nevada . These are in addition to their previous sets for US National Parks in the East, Central and West US; their websites says that maps for the rest of the US are “Coming Soon”. These Garmin 1:24K topo mapsets have some useful features, like elevation profiles, points of interest, routing on trails and dirt roads, and overlays for USGS topo quad and Township-Range-Section information. But at $100 list price ($80 street) for each set, it’s going to get pretty expensive to own even a small number of these. And since they’re being issued on microSD cards, they can only be used on one Garmin GPS unit at a time.
Fortunately, Dan Blomberg at the GPS File Depot, the MiscJunk website, and others continue to release their own versions of 1:24K topographic maps. While they don’t have all the fancy features of the Garmin sets, they’re free, based on the same US Government data as the Garmin maps, and can be uploaded to as many Garmin units as you like. Since my last update, Dan has released new 1:24K topo mapsets for New Mexico and Hawaii, and Idaho is coming soon; there’s also a new transparent overlay for Wyoming land usage/ownership. From the forum on his website, others following the process laid out in his tutorial on making Garmin topo maps are working on similar mapsets for Washington, Missouri and Florida as well. Dan has a list of links to all currently available free 1:24K Garmin topo mapsets at this link; currently, mapset links are listed for AZ, NM, CA, UT, CO, WY, MT, HI, MA, and MS. Maine is also available, but a link to that mapset is missing for now on Dan’s list.
And if you want actual USGS topo maps on your Garmin GPS unit, as well as other raster imagery, there are options …
Other posts in the Garmin GPS series
- Garmin microSD Card Tricks
- Exporting Data From Garmin’s MapSource Program To Google Earth
- Free Garmin GPS Unit Auto-Routing With MetroGuide Maps + Free European Basemap
- Cheap Worldwide Road And Contour Maps For Garmin GPS Units
- Converting A Garmin USB GPS Connection To Multiple Serial NMEA Connections
- Converting OpenStreetMap Data Into GPX Or Garmin .img Format
- Adding Garmin .img Map Files To MapSource
- Sources For Free Garmin .img GPS Map Files
- Beta Version Of DNRGarmin
- Google Maps Search Interface For Garmin .img Maps
- High-Res Garmin Topo Maps For CO, WY, and UT (also Argentina, Uruguay and Chile)
- Creating Custom Waypoint Icons For Garmin GPS Units I
- Creating Custom Waypoint Icons For Garmin GPS Units II
- Creating Custom Waypoint Icons For Garmin GPS Units III – Custom Waypoint Icons In MapSource
- Garmin Handheld GPS Units That Support Custom Waypoints
- Garmin MapSource For Free
- Garmin GPS Unit Waypoint Icons Table
- A Look At OpenStreetMap’s TIGER Data Exported To A Garmin GPS
- Beating The Garmin 2025-Map Limit With US Topo Maps
- High-Res Garmin Topo Maps Now Out For Utah
- Introduction To Garmin GPS Custom POI (Points Of Interest) Data
- Garmin Topo Maps For Montana And California
- Creating A Garmin Custom POI Datafile
- Managing Custom POI Data On A Garmin Handheld GPS
- Creating Custom Icons For Garmin Points Of Interest (POI)
- Creating A Garmin GPS Points Of Interest (POI) File From A Point Shapefile
- Entering Multiple Datasets For A Single Set Of Garmin Custom POIs
- AZ Garmin Topo Maps And More From The GPS File Depot
- Updates For Two Garmin-Related Programs
- Put USGS Topographic Maps, Aerial Imagery, And Other Raster Imagery On Your Garmin Handheld GPS
- New Garmin Map Links At The GPS File Depot
- Sets Of Custom Garmin Waypoint Icons
- Converting Raster Maps To Garmin Vector Format With BMap2MP
Thanks for the note; can’t believe I forgot Maine. I should make a mac version of that too. Idaho is compiling… hopefully soon barring any more errors.