Hello, I'm the OUTDOOR PROFESSOR from DiscoveringTheOutdoors.com/ Here's your outdoor tip on topographic maps. Topographic maps are your best choice for wilderness travel or other outdoor expeditions into unfamiliar areas. Even if you're moving through what you believe is an established, well-signed area, a topo map is a helpful tool when you want to identify with certainty your position. Roadmaps only show flat, 2-dimensional views of areas. Even aerial photographs only show distant views of earth features, but provide little identification of that structure. They both can be good to support your general travel, but are limited in providing needed details for unfamiliar areas. Missing will be information such as perspective on elevation in an area. Most topographic maps include Geological Survey (USGS) quadrangles and can be customized for a variety of purposes. They will have varying colors and be overlaid with contour lines showing elevations. For example, tightly spaced co
