Customer Reviews

Northern California Atlas & Gazetteer: Detailed Topographic Maps

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For wilderness travel the Delorme atlases are the best maps I've found to have in your pack aside from a backpack full of USGS and Forest Service maps. If you're interested in a road atlas, something to use while traveling around in the safety of your vehicle, then get a Thomas Guide (the best ROAD atlases in the world). The Delorme atlases show you all the land features, topography, public lands boundaries, and waterways (even the minor and intermittent ones). I've used three of these atlases while traveling on foot through the national forests, and they have literally saved my life many times. The one and only complaint I have about these atlases are their size; they're huge, and for an atlas whose contents seem to be designed for wilderness travel that large size just sucks when trying to find pack space for it. Fortunately, they fold in half easily, which helps a lot.

Only if there were other Atlas-Gazateers to compare too could you likely find much, if any fault, in DeLorme's product. There are the usual cartographic busts here and there. Perhaps it could be slightly smaller to fit in backpacks, but all the info the layperson needs is in there. Nearshore marine bathymetric data would be very helpful to discern some coastal water phenomena related to currents, coastal evolution and marine life viewing. But all in all it's the one to have.

I love this because the maps are nice and big and fairly easy to read.