GPS app with cacheable US National Forest maps

I found this site link like most people and I’ve actually started taking screenshots and stitching them. If there’s a particular region (assuming the map works for you) I can try to put together a file for you.

I have "Maplets" on my iPad, which allows you to download a number of different types of publicly available maps, including Forest Service maps. Pretty sure it works on iPhone as well. Very cheap or free, as I recall.

Thanks, Stephen — I took a look at the maplets web site and it appears that not all maps are gps-aware; they say "On GPS-tagged maps, simply tap the crosshair button to find your location on the map"; which makes it a pig-in-a-poke, but even if they were all gps-aware their coverage of the areas I'm interested in is sparse to nonexistent: I plugged in the names of the National Forests hereabouts and see that they either only cover a bit of the forest or none of it (Ochoco, Malheur, Deschutes National Forests).

Greg, how about making a stab at the Crooked River National Grassland, which is found on the USFS's Ochoco National Forest paper map? This would be in Oregon. Not to be confused with Crooked River State Park in Georgia. I'm heading up there in a couple of weekends and wish that I had the USFS map in the iPhone because the USGS topo maps don't show USFS road names (numbers).

This would be for iPhone. I expect I'd need some other app to view/gps any map you're creating?

Is this it?
link

Not the whole area, by far. The Crooked River National Grassland has "[…] a land area of 112,357 acre (175.56 sq mi, or 454.69 km²). It contains two National Wild and Scenic Rivers . . . "

Lemme see if I can find an overview of the place. Hang on, I'll be right back . . .

. . . I'm back. Boy, there is little that I can find.

GIS stuff here: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/data-library/gis/ochoco/index.shtml – but that appears to be for the entire Ochoco National Forest, the printed maps for the forest show the CRNG in the upper left corner. It's not contiguous with the main body of the forest. The CRNG may not even be considered part of the Ochoco Nat'l Forest, they may have just added it to the map "because."

To put a rectangle around the area, I'd put the upper left corner at N44 45' W121 05', lower right corner at N44 35' W120 95' — these are eyeball estimates taken from pages 51 & 63 of the 2010 "Oregon Road and Recreation Atlas" by Benchmark Press.

The area is covered in much better detail in the map "Ochoco National Forest & Crooked River National Grassland" published by the USDA Forest Service & BLM.

I could scan the relevant part of the Forest Service paper map and p-mail it to you if it would help you find the actual boundaries of the Grassland.

See, that's my point: USFS (USDA) nat'l parks are not well-supported by online map resources. I think they want you to buy the paper maps.

The lack of online maps for the national forests totally frosts my pumpkin.

I spent this last week driving and hiking in and around the Melheur, Ochoco, and Deschutes Nat'l Forests, and was mainly out of range of a cell tower the whole time. I had to rely on paper maps (I don't mind, I grew up reading paper maps, but for crying out loud this is the 21st century!) and would have appreciated detailed maps cached in the iPhone.

"USFS (USDA) nat'l parks are not well-supported by online map resources. I think they want you to buy the paper maps."

The U.S. Forest Service is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and it has nothing to do with the national parks. It would really like to sell you some maps, as there is no other funding for its map projects.

The National Park Service is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, and it has nothing to do with the national forests.

As a general rule, the U.S. Geological Survey, also part of the Department of the Interior, has the best collection of topo maps. The exception tends to be the areas that the Forest Service has carved out for itself.

The National Geographic software tends to have mostly U.S.G.S. map data, but there are exceptions.

–B.G.–

"The U.S. Forest Service is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and it has nothing to do with the national parks."

Oops — that was a typo on my part, I know that the USDA and the nat'l parks are not related.

"As a general rule, the U.S. Geological Survey, also part of the Department of the Interior, has the best collection of topo maps."

And I love USGS topo maps. But they are not up-to-date on nat'l forest details. But that's okay because I don't turn to nat'l forest maps when I want to see topological information, here I'm just looking to see if there is a way to get a cacheable gps-aware version of forestry maps in me iPhone.

So is it accurate to say that if you want a map that shows USDA Nat'l Forest roads, their names/numbers, the trails, and other details which are shown on Nat'l Forest maps — and nowhere else — you're pretty much packing the official paper map (or chunk of same)?

Road maps http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/centraloregon/maps-pubs/?cid=stelprdb5318152

I agree, forest service websites are all screwed up

They used to be better but then I think they all switched to the same software which lacks specific detail for each national forest which they're slowly adding

I too am always searching for places East of the Cascades because it doesn't rain so much as the west side

Thanks, Jerry — those Motor Vehicle Use Maps are a new item here in central Oregon. I have the entire collection (9 huge black and white maps in fine detail) for the Deschutes NF.

They are targeted at keeping car campers from driving willy-nilly all over the place and setting up camp wherever they want; and the scuttlebutt my son–who works for a locksmith which contracts to cut keys for the USDA FS–hears is that no one who works for the service has a clue what they mean or how they will be enforced. But enforced they will be, possibly arbitrarily at first, but eventually they'll get it sorted out.

But anyway, these maps don't show trails and other details useful to the backpacker — it's the data on the more familiar four-color USDA NF maps that I'd like to cache in the old iPhone.

low res, but in a pinch http://i.imgur.com/78lvS.jpg

Looks like you're NE of the Grassland. My suggested rectangle might be off by quite a bit?

Should have the following features on it: Haystack Reservoir (LATITUDE: N44°29.620 W121°09.603), Gray Butte (Latitude: 44-30'54'' N, Longitude: 121-06'09'' W) on it, Gray Butte Cemetery (44.46260, -121.09930) — sorry about the mixed formats, I cut and pasted them from different sources.

Dang. Why can't I find the boundaries of things like this on Google Maps? It would be a lot easier if I could provide a link.

you can go to google maps and get the link for whatever area you're looking at

…not for the Crooked River National Grassland: Google Maps shows that bit that you first found, the Field Headquarters for the Rimrock Springs Wildlife Management Area — where the headquarters of the CRNG is located. But not the boundaries of the Grassland itself.

But if you use Google Maps to find the Deschutes National Forest, it shows the boundaries.

Thing is, I can't find an online map anywhere that shows the CRNG's boundaries. If I could, then I could point you at it, and you could see what kind of resources are available online to fill it in with roads, etc.

http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php?ll=44.490658,-121.155081&t=t4&z=13&hillshade=18&coord=latlng&directions=off&mylocation=off&label=off&layers=off&screen=auto&streetview=on

Hey John — how you do that? Looks like the USGS topo info with updated USDA Forest Service data — additional roads, accurate up-to-date road names, and the actual boundary around the CRNG; though it's not all-inclusive: missing two campgrounds at Haystack Reservoir, and other FS info found on their paper map.

Some very well-maintained and signed trails on Gray Butte are not shown at all, but neither are they shown on the FS maps or any maps I can find.

But still, it's very nice.

Can such a thing be downloaded into a iPhone app and made gps-aware?

I just got lucky ; ). It's missing the west boundary portion likely due to quadrangle change. It may be the best you would find online. I'm sure someone could piece it together in a .jpg or .pdf file to be viewed on an iphone. They would need to know your north, south, east, west boundaries you want to be included.

Making it gps aware I am not sure about. It would have to be calibrated maybe, but the iphone may be able to do it.

…who was looking for a project.

Hey Jack,

I develop Gaia GPS… we have a USFS layer in Settings->Help->Add Map Sources. Also, in the v6.4 update that should come out next week, we have USGS/USFS hybrid as a default source.

Thanks to Greg and John for posting the Gmap4 links. I am the developer of that application.

For some (not all) lands administered by the USDA that department obtained copies of the USGS topos and added information including USDA road numbers, trail numbers and updated cultural features. Andrew has a native application (GAIA GPS) for the iPhone that can display those updated topos.

By contrast, Gmap4 is a browser app, not a native app. Gmap4 will run in the browser on your desktop, iPhone (with phone-friendly buttons) and most other devices. However, since Gmap4 is built on top of Google maps, your browser must be online.

To find a grassland or national forest with Gmap4:
1. http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php (display default map of the world)
2. Menu ==> Search
3. Enter name of grassland or forest. If needed – add state abbreviation

The homepage has a FAQ and examples to quickly get you up to speed.
Gmap4 homepage: http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.html

Joseph, the Gmap4 guy

Joseph: Thanks so much for explaining about the source for the maps that Gmap4 is displaying! USGS + USDA features, just the ticket. It's a great site, and a great tool.

Follow-up Question? Print preview and actual printing are blank in Chrome. I'm having to switch over to Firefox to print Gmap4 windows. Suggestions?

Andrew: Are you kidding me? That map source is available in Gaia GPS? Lemme see now . . . Settings > Help > Add Other Map Sources . . . I'll be hornswoggled, that it is! And Hey Presto! Gaia GPS displays the USGS + USDA features, as requested.

Is there anything you guys can't do?

Andrew: I see those are raster files. How much "disk" space would an iPhone need to be able to cache full zoom-level CalTopo USFS data to cover a, say, entire national forest? How about a 10 x 10 mile square section?

Switching from USGS to Cal Topo USFS is flawless, it displays the same piece of land that was previously on the screen using USGS. But the historic USGS maps — 1900 and 1930 — switch me down to someplace in California. The GPS icon button doesn't re-center the map on my present location.

When you use Gmap4 you can print the map you see on your screen. That printing is handled 100% by code from Google and your browser. My code is not involved in that printing.

Here is some general info from Google about printing web pages with Chrome. It was only last year that Chrome first became able to print web pages. Perhaps Google is still improving those features.
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/06/print-preview-in-google-chrome-13.html

For now at least you have found the solution. If you want to print from Gmap4, use Firefox.

Most web pages print just fine with Chrome, there are precious few that don't. The maps your site generates are among those that few that don't. I understand that your site isn't handling the printing, that it's done by the browser code. Funny that Google can't sort that issue out. I mean, if they can display it, what's the problem with printing it?

As you say, at least I can work around it by launching Firefox.

But, that aside, your site is great. Thanks for doing the work!

I had almost forgotten how S M R T people are around here. Thanks for the links!!! Just found out my Google Earth USGS topo maps layer no longer works. These maps are very nice indeed. I get the feeling every time Google makes up something really cool they take it away from the masses and keep the program from actually being handy.

Still sad over the geographical labels being taken away from Mountain Top's and Buttes. I had found this feature to be very useful when identifying photo's of unknown geographical features post-trip. I just couldn't beat zooming into to ground perspective for a positive ID. Sorry it's off topic-ish but maybe someone has come up with a solution with more knowledge than I. Mac user am I if it matters. Sometimes we are punished software wise for this difference.

Thanks again for those links. Very useful!!!! Made my day :)