National Geographic Alaska Topo Map

Rating:
Summary: Perfect Complement to Your GPS
Review: As a proud owner of a Garmin Legend, I searched for the perfect complementary mapping software. I wanted/needed a product to help plan personal backpacking trips as well as assist me with work and school research projects which have me wandering about the Alaskan backcountry. I spent weeks reviewing many products and eventually narrowed them all down to two: National Geographic's TOPO! Alaska (NGTA!) and Garmin's MapSource Topo USA. Finally, thanks in large part to Amazon.com's customers' review of MapSource TOPO USA, I decided to buy NGTA! and have been thrilled with the product ever since. Some of my highlights are listed below:

Installation is a breeze and learning to use the basic functions is fairly intuitive. Plotting waypoints and routes is straightforward. The ability to construct an elevation profile of any route you design is a wonderful feature and helps immensely with planning trips. Downloading waypoints and routes from my laptop to my Garmin was surprisingly easy (this coming from a slowly recovering technophobe). Uploading waypoints and routes that I had created while in the field to the software allows me to see, on a much larger scale, where I had traveled.

Some of the more advanced features, however, may require a quick search of the Adobe PDF Instruction manual. For example, with NGT!, you can attach digital pictures and notes to your map which is a phenominal feature if you like to share your outing with friends/family/club members. Speaking of sharing your trips, National Geographic also has a website dedicated to the TOPO! Series products. On this website you can upload trips you have taken, and these will be posted on the site for others to download. You can of course download posted trips from other donors- complete with waypoints and routes. It really is a cool way to obtain "ready-to-go" trips for your GPS. As a matter of fact, the last time I checked, some ambitious soul had waypointed and routed most of the Northern California section of the PCT. Wow.

The software also allows you to print out maps at various scales. The maps themselves are sharp and clear. And since the NGT! maps are digital and seamless, you no longer have to carry multiple paper maps when your destination just happens to be located on the edge of the traditional USGS paper maps. NGT! allows you to select the size, scale and location of the print area which means you can put your destination or area of interest smack dab in the middle of your print out and be good to go.

At the time of this writing, Amazon.com had not listed or described the features of this particular product. However, it shares the same features as the other TOPO state products. But keep in mind, that Amazon's features listing is extremely concise. For a more complete list of features, check out NG's website.

In general, this product has exceeded my expectations in many ways and because of its versatility and ease of use I continue to find new and fun ways to use it.