National Geographic Yellowstone National Park Wyoming/Montana, USA: Trails Illustrated Topo Map

Rating:
Summary: Essential map for hiking and backpacking
Review: This is the essential topographical map for hiking in Yellowstone. Trails Illustrated also sells some maps of particular regions of the park such as Tower/Canyon at 1:83,333 scale. (The map of the whole park is 1:168,500.) The bigger map is perfectly serviceable for any hike that you might want to take, and I can't find any place in the park where the big map would lead you astray. Still, if you like having the smaller scale, go for it.

Like other Trails Illustrated maps, this one comes with all sorts of practical information on the back side of the map. None of this will be new to you if you've read the usual guide books, but it's moderately useful having it repeated here. One very helpful feature of this map is that it shows the burn areas so that you can avoid moderately or heavily burnt forests.

The trail numbers on this map are coordinated with Day Hiking Yellowstone by Tom Carter. I don't have that book so I can't vouch for how useful it is. However, it's easy to coordinate the numbered trails with other books that I do have (such as Lonely Planet Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, Hiking Yellowstone National Park: A Falcon Guide, and A Ranger's Guide to Yellowstone Day Hikes).