Detailed BLM maps of Utah -- problem solved --see below

Did you try BLM Utah Interactive Map?

Son of Norway wrote:
Did you try BLM Utah Interactive Map?

That's very useful. Thanks for the pointer to this link. Other states in the sidebar. BLM sure come up short on the map front compared to NPS, but on the other hand they more than make up for the shortage with their boondocking opportunities.

I did try that link and found the map to be almost unusable -- as you zoom in, the info gets impossible to read. Maybe I am doing something wrong with the settings. I will have to experiment with it.

I have not tried them yet, but I noticed that Garmin has sd cards for their gps units with that information

Garmin huntview

Plan to use in future.

Try this link for the USGS viewer. Link to USGShttps://maps.usgs.gov/padus/

I liked this one so much that I printed it out and had it laminated to keep in the van for when I'm out of cell signal. It's a surface management map, showing all the different agencies. Not as high res as one could wish, but it gives the general picture.

https://gis.utah.gov/data/cadastre/land-ownership/

Sometimes when I can't find good BLM maps for a particular area online, I call the BLM office in the area I'm interested in. For free or very small fee they will mail you maps.

I got a free public lands map for my Garmin GPS here. I can overlay the public lands map on top of the regular map in the Garmin. However, I can't do the same with Garmin Mapsource (obsolete) or BaseCamp program on a laptop. However, with both I can make a waypoint on the regular map and then toggle to the public lands map and the waypoint shows up.

Latest update is Feb 2011, but I would think public lands boundaries are pretty stable.

Here is a link to the BLM map. I think this is the one closest to Cedar City.

https://www.blm.gov/documents/utah/public-room/map-12

Solved. First, here is the link to the BLM online map system:

BLM Online Map

Choosing your state is the easy part. If you have the same experience that I had, you pull up the map, zoom in, and you can't see much of anything, other than big mustard yellow blotches. Useless.

It turns out that the default settings on the layers on the map are virtually opaque. Here is how to fix it:

After your map loads, go to the menu in the upper right and click on the "layers" icon, which looks like a stack of paper. A big box will pop up on the right edge of the map.

Now scroll to the bottom of that map. Click the box next to "surface management." It should turn blue.

Now click on the little row of three horizontal dots next to the words "surface management." A small box pops up. One of the menu items is "transparency." Click on it.

A slider will pop up. As far as I can tell, the slider is set to "opaque" by default. Move the slider toward the right, to about the 60 percent level. That preserves some of the color overlay (which gives you the all-important info about which land is BLM and which is not), while still letting you see roads and other key landmarks.

Not the most user-friendly map I have ever seen, but it gets the job done.