Benchmark atlases or ???? Hiking trails on something else?

Benchmark is so much better than Delorme. It's super easy to read details and shows public lands good. We love them. Nothing can compare if you're an explorer.

https://www.benchmarkmaps.com/atlas

For hiking you need a hiking map.

https://www.natgeomaps.com/trail-maps/trails-illustrated-maps

If you want to stick to paper then the best for hiking trails are the National Geographic maps. Pricey, run around $16 ea and a limited area covered.

THANKS on the delorme... I will stick with benchmark.

Maybe the person was referring to DeLorme atlases, which are in many ways similar to the Benchmark ones. DeLorme has atlases that cover all the states, unlike Benchmark, but IMHO their maps are a little harder to read and so not quite so handy to use. Both have similar scales and show similar sets of features.

My go to for forest roads and trails is Forest Maps app. Company uses USFS maps.

I do a lot of off-roading and GAIA and ONX are great. Gaia is free and ONX is $29/year. Bottom line is GAIA and ONX work without being connected to a network. I've been way out in the boonies and still the maps still worked. I've never been lost with them.

We really like iHikegps, which is an app for your phone. It works without cell coverage, as long as you have pre-loaded the USGS topo maps when you do have coverage.

We use it primarily for hiking and for forest road navigation. When we are driving on pavement, we usually use Google Maps, because there is usually cell coverage.

The iHike app is very easy to install and use. And the maps are very easy to read, much better than on our earlier Garmin devices.

cptqueeg wrote:
Gaia looks good. I use On X for hunting because it has property ownership, but it's $100/yr for more than 1 state.

LOL I got it on sale for $10, have not used any of them yet since our night out.

I have had good luck with trails.com and of course Google Search. Type in name of trail or trail head and there it is. Also when I zoom in close on Google Maps to a particular trail head such as Mount Rose then click on the name then many photos are displayed and the website for that trail head is posted and the website usually has a detailed topo map of the trail/s in that immediate area plus other info such as Galena Park near Reno that has detailed maps of Thomas Creek, Galena creek and Whites creek trails in the Humboldt National forest.

Google and Bing search are always my friends. I also use Benchmark maps for many outdoor activities and they are my favorite atlas.

Gaia has property ownership as well.

I would also agree that alltrails is marginal for navigation, but can be useful for finding a trail description ahead of time.