DeLorme Atlas

[dennis 221]

Are these as good as benchmark for the east side of the U S. Like benchmark are for the west side?? We use benchmark out west an would like similar for n.e. an southeast. Florida Maine ect ect...thanks

 

[MarkBC]

I don't think the Delorme are as good as Benchmark. AND YET, despite believing that, I have bought Delorme atlases for all of the Southern states to cover my travels there in the past couple of years.
Definitely better than nothing.

 

[Foy]

As a lifelong denizen of the East Coast, an old school field geologist by early 1970s training, a map study junkie who 8 years sought to plot out all of the Appalachian Trail road crossings from Georgia to Maine, and a guy who owns no GPS or map software outside of what came in my iPhone, I offer the following regarding DeLorme and East Coast field work planning:

1) Mark is spot-on with his opinion that Benchmarks are superior to DeLormes for states which are covered by both, which are primarily from the Pacific east to the Rockies. I completely concur.

2) Mark is also spot-on with his opinion that in the East, and I'll here add the Midwest, the DeLormes are better than nothing. Completely concur.

And I'll add this: Generally following the Appalachian Mountains, from North Georgia through parts of TN, NC, WV, and VA, the National Geographic "Trails Illustrated" folding, water resistant maps (TIs) offer utility for field use vastly superior to Benchmarks and DeLormes. Part of the exceptional utility is due to scale--generally finer than an inch to a mile vs Benchmark/DeLorme generally being an inch to 4 miles. The topographic contour interval is appropriate and at field use utility, generally at 40' contour intervals. The TIs normally show NF boundaries clearly, NF numbered roads and trails, NF gates along roads and trails (VERY useful since NF gates are normally closed/opened on seasonal schedules). I have not bothered to check on howmuch of the Mid-Atlantic or the Northeast parts of the Appalachians are now covered by TIs, but at the least I would expect and hope that the Greens in VT, the Whites in NH, and most of central Maine would be covered--all three areas being generally along the AT corridor.

Outside of the Appalachians, the standard DeLormes are, to my knowledge, the only game in town. My primary beef with the DeLormes for the Southern states is the contour interval is nearly useless (often 100' or 30 to 50 meters) in areas having barely that degree of topographic relief) and are printed in very faint ink. Little of an area's topography really "pops" out at you. A close second in complaints is the excessive number and print font size of cultural features, principally towns and similar place names. Such obscures stream drainage patterns which should be the go-to in the absence of decent topographic contour expression.

All of that said, I do not venture afield in any state not covered by Benchmark without a DeLorme in the truck.

Foy

 

[MarkBC]

I was glad to find that Benchmark added Texas to its coverage... 'recently'.
I use state atlases mainly to find places, to get a feel for where 'stuff' is.
For actual driving navigation in unfamiliar territory I rely on turn-by-turn directions spoken by Google Maps on my phone.
I've acquired lots of Trails Illustrated maps over the years, mostly national parks and monuments.

 

[Vic Harder]

How many maps make up the TI collection for the Appalacians?

I'm looking to take a fall colours trip from Calgary to Cape Breton to Richmond, Virginia some time in the next 2-3 years. Resources/suggestions most welcome! (Maybe I will start another thread for that content). Now back to the original topic...

 

[rando]

If you get a 'premium' Gaia subscription it includes digital access to ALL the NG Trails Illustrated maps. I know many prefer the plastic-paper versions, but you can at least see which ones you might want to get based on the Gaia digital versions. To me this is one of the killer features of Gaia.

There are also some other resources available for the east - the National Geographic Recreational Atlas are pretty good, are on a similar scale (1:150,000)to the Delorme Gazetteers and have nicer cartography.

My experience is that the usage in the east is quite different than in the west. There are not millions of acres of public lands with BLM and USFS tracks and trails to explore, so you end up using them more like a Rand McNally road atlas and less like a topographic map.

 

[Foy]

Access to the TI series IS a killer feature for a digital map product. Thanks for that info.

As to "how many", I don't know anything about coverage north of around the VA-MD border area. From northern GA through VA, the TI map sheets are concentrated in and around the National Parks (Smokies and Shenandoah) and several National Forests and subunits of the National Parks system (the AT and the Blue Ridge Parkway) which effectively connect the NPs. With the paucity of NP and NF lands from the MD-PA border area, and the paucity of actual mountains in the midsection of the Atlantic Coast states, I suspect little to no TI map coverage until one finds NF lands again up in VT and NH.

Aside from the relatively small areas of public lands in the East, or at least the Southeast, our NF lands generally are not continuous blocks of public land. Lacking the structure of the Public Lands Survey System, our landholdings boundaries are "metes and bounds" and are highly irregular. And when the Southeastern NFs were created by Federal law, only the outer boundaries were set by statute, with the mission of the Gummint to then acquire all lands readily available within the boundaries. The result is lots and lots of "inholdings" of private land within a particular NF boundary area. In NFs within the Piedmont and Coastal Plain, it's not unusual for public lands to actually make up only 50% of a given land area within the overall boundaries.

Foy

 

[dennis 221]

thanks ! lol u mean like Acadia np. cites an private land
inside the whole park!

 

[dennis 221]

asked because we have a wedding in Florida an I read they have a lot of national forests in that state!so would love to take advantage of that!

 

[SkyP]

If you get a 'premium' Gaia subscription it includes digital access to ALL the NG Trails Illustrated maps. I know many prefer the plastic-paper versions, but you can at least see which ones you might want to get based on the Gaia digital versions. To me this is one of the killer features of Gaia.

There are also some other resources available for the east - the National Geographic Recreational Atlas are pretty good, are on a similar scale (1:150,000)to the Delorme Gazetteers and have nicer cartography.

My experience is that the usage in the east is quite different than in the west. There are not millions of acres of public lands with BLM and USFS tracks and trails to explore, so you end up using them more like a Rand McNally road atlas and less like a topographic map.

I too have the Gaia subscription- I just wish they'd update the aerials. Way out of date, which is puzzling because a few other free resources are MUCH more current. We own some land in the NC mountains and the aerials are several years old.