Good Low cost Camping Map Books for The West?

[covered_wagon]

I would like to avoid electronic books and love actual paper books and maps if anyone knows a good resource for low cost camping spots along western routes. I like out of the way routes and stay off the common routes. Even spending extra 2 days getting somewhere is not a problem.

Thank you ever so much.

[covered_wagon]

Edd505 wrote:
Trucker Atlas available at most truck stop. Truck routes are clearly marked so any RV will be able to follow those. Learn how to read it and you will be able to decipher what it has to tell you, highway class, distances etc. There you will also find Exit Guild if your interested in whats off each exit nation wide.

Thank you, I will. Truck stop shopping has just been opened up to me. I was amazed at the amount of useful items. Everyone was friendly and helpful it seemed more so than most other stores.

[Edd505]

Trucker Atlas available at most truck stop. Truck routes are clearly marked so any RV will be able to follow those. Learn how to read it and you will be able to decipher what it has to tell you, highway class, distances etc. There you will also find Exit Guild if your interested in whats off each exit nation wide.

[covered_wagon]

Thanks everyone. Recently traveled from NW Oregon to Scottsdale Arizona using my old Rand McNally map book. It was correct in every way, even staying off interstates most of the whole way. What a nice travel it was running all out of the way highways. Without Google Maps it does not show all the campgrounds so it forced us to watch for national forest service roads and camps along the way. Wow! what quiet secluded places we found. It was 8 nites on the road and only two places did not suit us, but we quickly found alternatives before dark. When needed we got full hook ups in two nice RV parks since most all the campgrounds were closed this time of year.

BTW, never heard this mentioned before but, Zion Natnl Park is incredibly beautiful. It must go on your bucket list, you will not regret it.

[pnichols]

Matt_Colie wrote:
Phil,

What map are you using with the GPS??
I am still running Street Atlas 2015, but it is getting really out of date.

If there was some way to load the USA from Google maps and lock it to the BU353, that would be great, but when I have tried to load enough Gmaps, we have always managed to drive off the end of the earth when there is no cell coverage.

I was hoping to learn to use CoPilot, but just haven't managed.

Matt

Matt - I don't have a GPS adapter for my laptop, so for satellie based navigation we use our Garmin Nuvi 3550LM with maps loaded in it's memory for all of the lower 48 states, Alaska, and Canada. For our travels in the West we have several of the individual Benchmark state atlases. These two sources together are all we need and of course no cell tower access is needed.

My phone has a large enough memory (256GB) so it could probably internally hold maps for at least the entire lower 48 and there are phone apps that supposedly don't need cell tower access in order for the phone to be used for GPS navigation, but we can't tolerate the little tiny phone screens.

I can show my phone's screen on my laptop's screen, so I suppose that would alllow me to use the phone for non-cell-tower-access navigation via a larger screen.

[agesilaus]

You can load google earth and get the maps on your drive but I don't know if you can follow a gps location on those. I seem to recall hearing that you may be able to do so.

[Matt_Colie]

Phil,

What map are you using with the GPS??
I am still running Street Atlas 2015, but it is getting really out of date.

If there was some way to load the USA from Google maps and lock it to the BU353, that would be great, but when I have tried to load enough Gmaps, we have always managed to drive off the end of the earth when there is no cell coverage.

I was hoping to learn to use CoPilot, but just haven't managed.

Matt

[agesilaus]

You can usually buy a Kindle Fire tablet for around $100, they are easily jail broken to use Android apps

[vermilye]

pnichols wrote:
For us, the tiny little phone screens aren't really usable ... plus often phone memories aren't large enough to hold detailed wide area maps in case the phone can't connect to a cell tower at any particular place.

A laptop with a large memory holding, for instance, detailed maps of the entire Western U.S. - with the necessary GPS receiver plugged into one of it's USB ports - is the way to do it, IMHO.

While I agree that a laptop provides the most flexibility, a large iPad or other tablet will do much of the same at a lower cost and, depending on the model, already has the GPS built in.

[pnichols]

For us, the tiny little phone screens aren't really usable ... plus often phone memories aren't large enough to hold detailed wide area maps in case the phone can't connect to a cell tower at any particular place.

A laptop with a large memory holding, for instance, detailed maps of the entire Western U.S. - with the necessary GPS receiver plugged into one of it's USB ports - is the way to do it, IMHO.

[monkey44]

We've been looking for a good paper/plastic Atlas for years, without much luck.

We carry an old Atlas that shows most routes, and most NPS, NFS, COE, and state parks - which is generally where we camp. It now lives as if it had a major highway accident - complete with taped up pages and small rips, a few missing pages. Not quite in a cast yet 🙂 .

We use it as much as we can. But it forced Genie to learn more about her phone and mini-GPS on it while we travel. We supplement the map with searches on it, especially between destinations and looking for an overnight stop, sometimes using private CG's if no NP or SP nearby.

We haven't traveled much in the last eighteen months or so, but continue looking for a good national level camping Atlas. We like the size and feel of paper and a state-wide page instead of the pint-sized partial image on the phone. It's worked well for us over the years. We'll see what happens next trip out - wandering north to end in SC for family wedding in May ... Alot has changed since our last road trip of any distance.

[Blazing_Zippers]

Last May, we went mostly across the U.S. before we found a Truckers Atlas at a truck stop. It seems that "maps" are so old school.
On the other hand, the new atlas we bought really didn't have much different than the 12 year old one we had.
I understand the need of the OP to have printed information.

[NamMedevac_70]

I have had great results using all the above and most all were free to me.

[dcason]

Agesilaus
This is what OP asked for:

covered wagon wrote:
I would like to avoid electronic books and love actual paper books and maps if anyone knows a good resource for low cost camping spots along western routes. I like out of the way routes and stay off the common routes. Even spending extra 2 days getting somewhere is not a problem.

Thank you ever so much.

He didn't ask for campgrounds...just camping spots and that is what benchmark provides....BLM lands, national forest service lands, etc These ARE out of the way and many times you will have the place to yourselves. We always do a google maps search to further explore the spot before going there to see what we see (like campers in the zoom). Works great for us. This is the boondocking/dry camping category, not campgrounds. So I think I am spot on.

[RedRollingRoadb]

I have had a copy of this book for 20 years and still fall back on it at times.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/moon-pacific-northwest-camping-the-complete-guide-to-tent-and-rv-campi...

I know nothing of this seller, it was just one of the first hits that came up.