Is there a good app for long distance secondary roads?

a phone is a pretty small screen to see the big picture what planning your route...
Ive tried it, but its just not as functional as a real map.

we always prefer to travel the scenic routes unless there is some hurry to get somewhere, which isnt often when we are on a roadtrip..... and I use the Gazetteer maps that are found in nearly any sporting goods store you go into... there is the red cover version, and the black cover version, I prefer the black cover gazetteer, but I always buy both when I can, as each has its pros and cons, and with both you can get a pretty accurate mental picture of the route...
they are of a very easily readable scale/size, so nearly all interesting features of the area are listed on the map...

Naio wrote:
I haven't used co-pilot for a while, so long that I didn't have a copy of it on my current phone.

I downloaded it and checked it out.

It is a little better for this job than Google Maps. It has the same problem of just showing the freeways surrounded by huge blank spots on the map until you zoom in, but it seems like zooming in always causes it to show the smaller roads, unlike Google which sometimes wiill show them and sometimes won't.

What I really want is an app that treats smaller roads the way it treats freeways, showing them whenever there is room on the screen. (A different color is nice, of course.)

THAT is what I am trying to tell you.

Your phone screen CANNOT DISPLAY the small road details until you ZOOM IN EXTREMELY CLOSE.

There simply is not enough resolution on your screen to display the extremely small and fine details like secondary road until you zoom in.

There is no "app" that is going to be able to display the fine detail, it is a limitation of screen size and not to mention even if you could the phone processor and memory would simply not be able to handle it.

Imagine what a standard state sized paper map which is something like several FEET wide will look like if you downsized it to fit your 6"-8" screen.. All the FINE detail data would have to be thrown out just to downsize it to fit your screen.

Do yourself a favor, take a picture with your phone of a paper map.

Then try to display the entire map to fit on the screen.

Good chance you will not be even able to identify the INTERSTATE ROADS AT THE ORIGINAL SIZE.

Then zoom in until you can see secondary roads..

My guess is you will be down to 3-4 miles (you can use the map scale to figure that out) before you will see the secondary roads.

Gde, I appreciate your efforts to help.

I have not responded to your posts about screens because I was trying to avoid derailing the thread. But you are very insistent!

You are confused about what I am looking for.

I just spent 30 minutes trying to find a way to do a screenshot so I could show you, but you will have to imagine.

I am looking at a Maps image out west. The scale indicates my current view is about. 200 miles x 400 miles. There are two yellow lines on the screen one near the top and one near the bottom. Those are freeways. The rest of the screen is blank, white.

I know there are roads in that blank white area the size of my palm. I would like SOME of them to show up.

Does this help?

Do they show up when you zoom in?

One of my complaints with BaseCamp is that the small roads and trails don't show up until you zoom in close. It's not possible to see the small roads until you zoom in. And this is on a 23" monitor, not a phone. It's just the way the program is coded.

Chasing unicorns here, like gde was trying to convey, it's not possible.

If topographical maps don't work for you and Google maps don't work for you, then paper maps are probably the best solution.

From Google; they removed streets and other secondary roads from the map in 2016 to make the map easier to read.

They added an option in 2017 to avoid highways and major roads. It's in the route planning menu. It will show your route crossing blank map unless you zoom in.

I have been using Maps.me

Great zoomed out view of primary and secondary roads throughout the US and Australia. Have not used in other countries yet.

As you zoom into a specific area it will prompt you to download a more detailed map of that area. Minor downside, maybe. May require some preplanning or WiFi or Data.
But the detailed maps don’t take up much space. And you can delete unused maps easily.

Have not tried to use offroad.

Simple to use turn by turn navigation feature.

Secondary roads not showing for me on that app when zoomed out, only major roadways, same as Google.

Naio wrote:
Benchmark broke my heart by not showing BLM land!

Why sure it does. I'm looking at the Arizona Benchmark right now and it shows BLM.

My California one does not. That's the only one I tried. I didn't realise they were not standardized from state to state!