
Printable 1:24000 topographic maps for the entire US - david-given
http://www.natgeomaps.com/trail-maps/pdf-quads
======
david-given
I'm a map junkie; I grew up in the UK, where we have the Ordnance Survey, who
makes some of the best maps in the world. At school we actually got lessons in
mapreading and analysis.

As a result, whenever I go to another country the first thing I do is to try
and find some decent maps of the area. With, you know, contours on them. It
can be surprisingly hard.

I was so, so glad to find this.

~~~
iliis
Interested in maps from Switzerland? They are of very high quality as well:

[http://map.geo.admin.ch/](http://map.geo.admin.ch/)

There are a lot of different overlays as well as older versions available. I
especially recommend the 'Dufour Map' and the 'Siegfried Map' from the 19th
century, the earliest official maps of the country.

~~~
tschuy
Similarly, the French government has some great maps up:
[http://www.geoportail.gouv.fr/accueil](http://www.geoportail.gouv.fr/accueil)

It's in French, unfortunately for the Anglophone world, but they also have
aerial maps dating back to the 30s under the advanced explorer.

------
planteen
The US National Map has better, more recent topos. These GeoPDFs allow turning
on/off layers (e.g., satellite image, PLSS grid lines, etc). You can also
download historic topos.

[http://nationalmap.gov/ustopo/](http://nationalmap.gov/ustopo/)

~~~
Animats
That used to be at "seamless.usgs.gov". The USGS was proud that they'd finally
aligned their topos into one seamless map.

------
NelsonMinar
Hey this is awesome! I'm a little confused about the NatGeo copyright; aren't
these USGS maps and therefore not copyrighted?

If you want an online map, MapZen recently produced a really excellent outdoor
map style. No contours, but really beautiful relief shading and an emphasis on
hiking trails, parks, etc. It's based on open data including OpenStreetmap,
SRTM, and a lot of other sources.
[https://mapzen.com/blog/walkabout/](https://mapzen.com/blog/walkabout/)

~~~
sliverstorm
(I can't get the page to load yet, but own a bunch of NatGeo maps-)

It probably falls under something akin to fair use. NatGeo is likely _using_ a
lot of USGS geo data, but doing additional work on top, adding in trails,
making the map nice, etc.

I tried to make my own maps once for my GPS unit, it gave me a new level of
respect for mapmakers. It's not terribly hard to take the raw LIDAR survey
data and make crude maps, but making a nice polished zoomable map with trails,
POI's, etc is laborious.

~~~
knz
> I tried to make my own maps once for my GPS unit, it gave me a new level of
> respect for mapmakers. It's not terribly hard to take the raw LIDAR survey
> data and make crude maps, but making a nice polished zoomable map with
> trails, POI's, etc is laborious.

It was even more laborious before computers were involved in cartography. My
first employer was full of old timers who manually carved contour lines and
maintained trig stations.

------
tombrossman
This is cool, thanks to OP for submitting this.

In the past I have ordered topographic maps from Raven Maps and they really
are excellent. Not cheap, but you can get plain paper suitable for framing or
laminated if you want to write on them with whiteboard markers. I have a giant
one of the USA, plus a few of states I've lived in.

No affiliation with the company except as a customer.
[http://www.ravenmaps.com/](http://www.ravenmaps.com/)

~~~
Animats
If you want USGS topos on paper, the USGS sells them directly.[1] The USGS
retail map store in Menlo Park, CA sells only California maps now.

[1] [https://store.usgs.gov/](https://store.usgs.gov/)

------
BarkMore
CalTopo ([http://caltopo.com/](http://caltopo.com/)) has these maps and more.
In addition, CalTopo supports many useful overlays.

------
torgoguys
For some reason, I read the title as being _3D_ printable maps for the entire
US. That'll eventually come, I guess.

~~~
thatcherc
Already has! I made Terrain2STL [0] a couple years ago to do just that. It
converts STRM topo data to the STL format.

[0] - [http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/](http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/)

~~~
dharma1
Nice. Could you 3D print the entire earth as a globe? :)

~~~
schoen
As noahnoahnoah's comment alludes to, there is kind of a problem with
elevation differences on Earth being small. For example, the vertical distance
from sea level to the summit of Mt. Everest is only 0.1% of the Earth's
radius.

If you made a globe with a 1 foot diameter, Mt. Everest should then be on
about 0.2 millimeters above the surface (if you choose to represent sea level
as the surface).

Edit: this problem is less dramatic if you make either models either of local
regions, or extremely large models (because relative to the size of a region
like the Bay Area, the highest elevations in the region _are_ fairly high).

~~~
dharma1
You are absolutely right, it hit me as well after posting the questing. The
elevations would have to be vastly exaggerated for a globe

------
nighthawk
I'm a huge fan of
[http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/](http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/)
for finding USGS maps - it's a simple, visual browser to find all available
years + scale levels for any location.

------
yread
Note that they can be quite old (USGS rev. 2001). They also don't have a lot
of detail - I was looking at the section of Appalachian trail I hiked and it
would it quite difficult to use these maps even though they are nominally
larger scale than the map I've used.

------
jsweojtj
I love this stuff!

I have a wooden topographical map made with a 3D CNC cut of the SF Bay Area
hanging on my wall. It's about 18x18 inches and almost 2 inches deep out of a
single piece of almost 2 inch thick piece of plywood. The part I like the most
is that the layers in the plywood reveal an automatic topographical map
visualization. Got it from here if curious:
[http://3dwoodenmap.com/](http://3dwoodenmap.com/)

------
Maultasche
Wow, the map for my area is seriously outdated. My town looks about like it
did when I was a kid in the 1980s. It's easy to tell because my town has
consistently grown since then from around 20k population to 150k population,
and a lot of things that were built up in the late 80s aren't yet on that map.

It's quite fascinating to get a refresher of what it looked like in the past.

It's a nice concept. I like being able to see this stuff.

------
kirrent
Damn, and here I was already jealous that NOAA provides free charts for the US
coast.

[http://www.charts.noaa.gov/InteractiveCatalog/nrnc.shtml](http://www.charts.noaa.gov/InteractiveCatalog/nrnc.shtml)

------
CrackpotGonzo
My friend uses these open maps to make really cool 3D topo maps. If anyone's
interested this is it: [http://lithosproject.com](http://lithosproject.com)

------
gravypod
Is there any way to download bulk data sets for gross height data for the USA?

I'd love to pair that up with OSM to make a few nice 3D maps.

~~~
waterphone
[http://nationalmap.gov/elevation.html](http://nationalmap.gov/elevation.html)

