Customer Reviews

Oregon Atlas & Gazetteer

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is good for anywhere in oregon. When you go into the wilderness it is very good, the only thing better is a forest service map ;)
BUY IT if you are planning on living in oregon or like to come to oregon ALL the time.

I worked on a project with the Oregon DOT, in which I drove about ten thousand miles throughout Oregon in one summer. This map was the guide we used in our travels throughout the state, and it was a more up-to-date source of information than most maps. We had to drive to 160 total sites, half of which were local (county) roads, and we were always able to keep our location, even in some rural areas that were not well marked.

It's the best map you can find on paper, if you're looking for detailed information covering the whole of the state, from interstate highways to dirt roads in the mountains. That is, unless you want to spend a lot more than $20, or you want to print a giant mosaic of the state of Oregon from your printer.

It's not a map for those who are simply looking for street names in cities like Eugene or Portland... there's no 10-page blowup of urban areas in the state, this is a map that covers the STATE of Oregon.

This map is for those who are familiar with the area in which they are traveling. In my work, I did find two roads that were in rougher shape than I would have expected by just looking at the map... however, I was WELL off of highways (making short cuts that took hours off of our trip), and as such, I knew I couldn't expect every single mountain road to be perfectly maintained.
By that measure, I found a few roads that were surprisingly well-maintained, given the terrain and vicinity to populated areas. And I found some places that I will hope to take my children camping or hiking someday... thanks to this map.

Remember, there is no substitute for obtaining local information regarding the travel worthy nature of roads. This map is a great guide, but no map is perfect. Stop by local government offices (the BLM, Forest Service, City Hall, etc) if you're looking for more localized maps, because you will also find locals who can inform you of the condition of unimproved roads in the area. Road conditions often vary county-to-county, unless you're on state highways, as each county prioritizes funds differently (and especially in rural Oregon, there's not enough money for the vast amount of space that needs to be maintained).

Also, remember that road names can change from the time this map is printed, and the time you actually use the map (I encountered this issue more than once... though, in one case, not even Google Maps had been updated to include the new name of a particular road). Considering how detailed this map is, unless you're driving through a large city, you can almost always find the right road if you're looking and aware of your location.

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. Finding locales and navigating inside the map is simple and easy, much simpler than the Benchmark series which don't seem to have a workable navigation key at all. 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.

As with all Delorme Atlas books you get detailed maps of main roads and all back roads. Indispensible if you plan on driving the back roads. Only thing I wish could be improved about these books is their durability. I find the pages typically come loose after what seems like a relatively few number of uses. But I buy them because they give me exactly the detail road maps I need.

If you plan on doing anything in the outdoors here in Oregon, this atlas is a sure guide to the state!

I usually use this atlas in addition to Benchmark's atlas (ISBN-10: 0929591887). While the DeLorme is a good general atlas, I find that the Benchmark tends to be more accurate and shows more obscure goodies like mines and hot springs. Bottom line: If you are going to only own one atlas, get the Benchmark series.

I purchased this as we were traveling from Portland down to Reno and wanted to find a fun, interesting route. I consulted my frommers guide to find the places I wanted to go and then used this along with my GPS and it was perfect. Oregon is a large state, and this atlas is divided into sections and areas of interest for recreation, etc. We drove from Portland east to the gorge and then south to Mt. Hood, through to Bend and on to Crater Lake. The atlas helped me figure out areas I wanted to hike and places to visit. I will use it again on my next trip west.

For just little money (at least as you order this atlas by Amazon! prices differ very much, especially for the price of the shipment!) you get an amazing accurate atlas and driving map, beautiful printed and a lot of things to see and explore. I am very glad with this map that I will use for driving through Oregon, where I'm going to travel for photography and where I will not visit the familiar and usual places.

Every year we go out into the back country of central and eastern oregon in a little honda civic, using this set of maps to get around, and it's amazing how reliable they are. We even use them to track down campgrounds and the little icons are well placed. We haven't pushed it too hard on the teeny tiny forest roads but the ones we've tried have usually been where they are supposed to be. It's not very useful if you want to find your way around in a town, although we've managed to make it work, but for getting around the state in general I can't recommend highly enough.

I love these map books. They have a scale that is much better than a typical highway map, although not as detailed as a Topo map. It is easy to follow the progress of our trips with the maps by matching up contours and landmarks. The only reason that I didn't give this 5 stars, is that the maps for parts of Eastern Oregon are only 1/2 the scale of the rest of the maps, and don't show all the detail that I was hoping for.