Free topo and trail maps for your Garmin GPS
If you’re a Garmin owner and aren’t aware of all the free maps available for your unit, you’re in for a treat. Detailed 1:24,000 scale topo maps are available for most states in the US, as well as for some foreign countries. We’re also beginning to see transparent trail maps that can layer on top of topos.
Sources for free Garmin GPS topo maps
- GPS File Depot – The best source for US topo maps, this site also includes a limited selection of international maps, forums, and tutorials. If your state isn’t listed, be sure to check out the regional maps before giving up.
- Mapcenter – The best repository of international maps, although you’ll see more highway maps than topo maps.
Trail maps too
A new trend has community mappers creating transparent trail maps that layer on top of topos. Here are a couple of notable ones:
- Northwest trails – covers Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, British Columbia and Alaska
- Southwest trails – covers Arizona and New Mexico, with plans to expand to Utah and Nevada
I’m hoping this trend expands to the entire US, especially since Garmin seems to put a low priority on trail data.
Searching for maps
Sometimes a map creator posts a map to his own website, and you won’t find it in one of the above repositories. It’s always worth searching for the name of the area you are looking for + Garmin + img (the file extension used by these maps). You can also experiment with adding terms such as map, topo or contour to your search.
Installing free maps to your Garmin GPS
There are a couple of easy ways to install these maps. If you have MapSource, many will self-register. GPS File Depot has installation instructions for PCs and Macs. If you don’t have MapSource, you can get it for free.
Garmin is adding drag and drop capability to their newer handhelds, so you can rename a .img file to WhateverNameYouWant.img and simply drag it into the Garmin folder. This works as of Oregon firmware version 3.10 and Colorado beta version 2.94.
There are other procedures you can use if you don’t have one of these models and just have a .img file. Here’s one using MapSetToolkit.
Pretty cool, huh? Now grab a map and get outside!
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The nortwest trails mapset is great i love it!
I’m a clueless prospective buyer who is still looking to buy a GPS unit for the car. I searched this site to see if Garmin units can use Topo maps when I spotted this article.
Sounds pretty cool, because when I travel Nevada & Arizona I like to go off-road ghost town hunting. I’m not very well schooled in the capabilities of Geeps hardware, so my clueless question is -
In which Garmin units can I install topo maps? Hand-held only, or can I install them on any (or just certain) road models?
Yes, they will work with any mapping unit, including auto units.
Rich,
That answers a bunch of questions.
Thanks for the quick reply!
JCR
Just ordered a Garmin 60CSx (great deal on Amazon – THANKS!). We will use it for trail riding on horseback, so am looking forward to getting it here and putting the local topo maps on. Thanks for all the great info on your site!
Cool! That’s a great unit for horseback riding. There’s not a more accurate consumer receiver on the market. Glad I could help!
How far in can you zoom while using the free topo maps?
What is the degree of relief when zoomed in all the way when using the free topo maps?
What kind of accuracy are we talking about when zoomed in all the way, on the free topo maps?
You can zoom in as far as you can with any other map. I’m looking at a 20′ scale right now on my Oregon 400t.
I’m not sure what you mean by “degree of relief.” Many are 1:24K scale maps, with 40′ contour intervals. Accuracy depends on the map maker, but generally, they are as good (and often better) than Garmin topo maps, which suffer from roads being off by a significant margin of error.
I am trying to find trail maps for Western North Carolina, like Pisgah Forest, Nantahala Forest, Smokies NP, etc. I have a Garmin Etrex hci with the micro-card. I have tried downloading topo maps, but can’t figure out how to use them.
Hey, you’re in my backyard!
As far as topo maps go, here is one…
http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/130/
And a tutorial on how to load them…
http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-to-load-maps-on-my-garmin-gps-unit/
I don’t know of any trail maps, but you can search for the trail name + gpx, which will often turn up track files. CMC has some posted for many trails…
http://www.carolinamtnclub.com/chooseall.asp
Can you get some maps for Australia, particularly sydney. NEEDED desparately
Topo or road? Here are some sources for both, but the Shonky topo map is 1:250K…
http://mapcenter2.cgpsmapper.com/catalogue.php?country=160
http://shonkylogic.net/shonkymaps/
http://downloads.cloudmade.com/oceania/aus…ads_breadcrumbs
Ok, I now have the new version of MapSource, and was able to load the topo maps.
My next step is to find hiking trail maps for Western North Carolina. Rich Owings gave me urls for Australian maps, but I am a little far away from there. I have also downloaded a map from the CMC, but MapSource does not recognize the format. I tried making it an MPS, GPX and GPS, but still no luck.
Also, what does it mean when it says in GPSMapEdit that I need to register? Can’t I first see if the program integrates with MapSource first? I will gladly pay the $65 if it integrates the GPX trail map with MapSource on the Garmin.
Actually, the Australian maps were for someone else. What format is the CMC file? You may be able to convert it with GPS Babel. And what do you want to use GPSMapEdit for?
The CMC file was a .gpx file.
GPSMapEdit is the program that ran on my computer when I tried to open the .gpx file. I think I downloaded it a while ago in my quest to understand this, which as you can tell, did not explain a thing! The track was displayed on the screen, but I must get it into my Garmin.
I heard that cGPSmapper can convert a .gpx to .img, which I was told can then be loaded into the Garmin GPS. I will try that next.
I may be getting close to understanding this, but boy, it sure is complicated!
Okay, I see. No need to convert it to an .img file. Open MapSource and go to File > Open. Change the file type box to .gpx and open your file. Connect your GPS and then select Transfer > Send to Device.
Then you’ll need to go into Track Manager on the eTrex and be sure the track (.gpx file) is set to show on the map.
GPSMapEdit seems to be set as the default for handling .gpx files on your computer. You might want to change that.
For Canada (and US too), there’s an excellent series of free topo maps. Just search for “Ibycus topo”.
I’m kinda new to the computer and gps scene,would like to know if I can put topo map from gpsfiledepot on sd memory card for my garmin nuvi,and if there are other legit free sites for NY topo maps.Thanks!
Yes you can, but unless you find a transparent map, you won’t be able to view it and your highway map at the same time. Go into map setup to enable the one you want to see. I think that is the best site, but there are several maps available there on this page… http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/state/ny/
You can also check http://cgpsmapper/mapcenter2.com