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40-Foot Contours:
Above the Timber's Colorado Topos are at
40-foot intervals, the same as standard 7.5-minute USGS Quad maps.
Because of the multi-layered nature of the maps, as you zoom out,
contours will automatically reduce to 200 foot intervals to avoid
contour clutter.
High Resolution
Water Data:
Besides the contour interval, the High
Resolution Water Data is what makes these maps stand out. Most vector
maps only have named water features, named lakes and streams. For every
named water feature, their are 100-unnamed water features. To the extent
possible with USGS water feature databases, ALL unnamed water features
are on these maps. We're talking beaver pond resolution!!!
Additionally, most Colorado rivers are shown at their true extent, bank
to bank, not just a line indicating river.
Public Lands in Unique Colors:
Virtually all Colorado
public lands are included on these maps and most have a unique color
for quick identification. The 2010 maps started from a newer lands data
layer and has more accurate polygons.
Here's a comparison of Above the Timbers maps verses two different Garmin Topo
maps:
30-minute Coverage
per Map:
Each map segment covers an area of 30 x
30 minutes of arc or exactly 16 - 7.5 minute Quad Maps. These maps
seamlessly join one to another, therefore you can have the entire
coverage area as one seamless map inside your GPS receiver. Their are in
total 120 - 30-min maps in the Colorado map set. All segments are
at 24,000:1 (24K) resolution. The total map
set is 220MB.
Covers ALL
of Colorado:
Extensive
Geologic Feature Points:
Their are over 40,000 points of interest
showing summits,
mines, cemeteries, arches, pillars, basins, springs, flats, ridges,
cliffs, waterfalls, communication towers, passes and on and on. For example, Colorado has over 7000 named
and positioned mines, they're all here! If you're in the vicinity of a
mine, look for the mine symbol on your Garmin GPS for its name.
National Park, Forest Service
and BLM Trails and Fourteener Routes:
All of the National Forest Trails are now
named and/or numbered. New in 2010, many BLM trails are shown, these
include the Gunnison Gorge, Montrose FO, Gunnison FO and the Little
Snake FO. The last includes the 100-mile long
Yampa Valley Trail.
Last mile routes for each of Colorado's
54-Fourteeners are now shown in a unique dot line type. Every Fourteener
has a least one trail and/or route leading to its summit, some have
three. The screenshot below gives an example where trails start from a
trailhead and routes lead from the defined trail "the last mile" to the
summit.
Because both routes and trails are
vectors, their line definition does not change as you zoom in, unlike a
paper map. If a switchback exists and is not visible at the 0.5 mile
scale as shown below, at the 500 foot scale that same switchback will be
very apparent and shown in the context of the contours and with the same
dot spacing you see below.
A note about routes, trails and routes
are not the same, routes may have no visible on ground indication of
their existence unlike a trail. Routes are simply lines on a map,
nothing more. Also, just because the line exists, it does not mean you
have the necessary skills for the route. Users are advised to research
the route before attempting them as some are very steep with
considerable exposure. See the Capitol Peak screenshot, top of this
page, that route goes over the knife edge with thousands of feet of air
on both sides, the map will not help you cross that feature, it's up to
you.
Latest Roads:
Major state and federal highways shown in
distinct colors and with unique shields for quick identification. All
city streets are included, while not routable, the road features greatly
aid navigation.
Ski Lifts & Trams:
Every ski lift and tram is shown in a unique
ski lift line type. Each lift is described as follows: Name, Capacity,
Elevation Gain, Type and Sub-Type. Lifts not included are beginner lifts
of ~100 feet or less at the bottom of the mountain. Like every other
vector on the map, simply touch the lift line with your cursor for a
complete description.
Game Management Unit Borders:
Division of Wildlife Big Game (Deer &
Elk) Game Management Unit borders have been added at the 1:24,000 scale of the maps. That's equivalent to having a single borderless paper
map 980 x 720 inches or 82 x 60 feet. Significantly more precision than any PDF print or
text description. See your exact position relative to a GMU border in
the field, then use your GPS to measure how far away the border is from
your position. All border lines are labeled with the adjacent area
numbers, for quick reference.
The above screenshot will give you an
idea of the complex nature of the GMU's and how these maps can assist
you in the field.
Free Trial Download:
Here's a 2 MB file which will demonstrate
all the features of the Colo GPS Topos. It will show all highway types, wilderness, BLM, state land,
national forest, city areas, ski lifts, GMU's and much, much more. The map is in a
self-extracting executable file. The map will appear in MapSource or
BaseCamp as
Colo Topo Demo and you
can load it into any Garmin mapping GPS. If you're new to MapSource,
these
screenshots will help immensely. You can also use this download
to verify that Above the Timber's maps will work in your Garmin GPS
receiver.
PC Download A link to download the
latest version of Mapsource is included in the PC file.
Mac Download
See the Mac installation directions
here.
Cost and Upgrade:
$49.95
Click the price link for Order Type Options.
For the cost of a half-dozen
paper 7.5-minute USGS Quads, you can buy this map set with the same coverage
as 1792 - 7.5-minute Quads. That's less than $0.03 per Quad. The paper
equivalent is a single borderless map 980 x 720
inches or 82 x 60 feet.
The upgrade options will
differ depending on whether you downloaded or bought retail, here's the
Upgrade Link.
Change Log:
A web page that shows a history of map changes
by version number:
Change Log
Screenshots:
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A detailed wide view to show
trails and major features. Wilderness areas are shown in this buff
color to both distinguish them from forest,
but also that the color not overwhelm the fine detail. Trails, red
dashed line, are now easy to see against the contours. |
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Of note, the snow field "glacier"
on the upper-right, the ponds along East Brush Creek, made
possible by the high resolution water data
and the wetland on the left at the 11,600 contour. |
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Every pass is identified by the
unique symbol seen here. |
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States
Arizona | Colorado
| New Mexico
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Utah
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Washington
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