The Roads of Colorado

Rating:
Summary: Best "atlas" of Colorado
Review: Don't be fooled by the name. This map has far more than the just the "Roads" of Colorado. If you are looking for a map to show you how to drive from Littleton to Englewood, get a free atlas from your insurance agent, but if you want the single best map showing more than just roads, this is it.

Trails Illustrated maps are great, but there must be 60 of them and that doesn't even cover the whole state. Roads of Colorado is the next step up. Use this map first, and then if you need more detail about a small area get the Trails Illustrated (if available).

I wish they would make these maps for Utah, Wyoming, and Montana also. The Delorme Colorado Atlas & Gazetteer map is OK, but Roads of Colorado is much better. Particularly in respect to small road detail and land status. These maps are almost as good as BLM maps at showing land status (private, BLM, state, USFS, etc.).

Rating:
Summary: Best "atlas" of Colorado
Review: Don't be fooled by the name. This map has far more than the just the "Roads" of Colorado. If you are looking for a map to show you how to drive from Littleton to Englewood, get a free atlas from your insurance agent, but if you want the single best map showing more than just roads, this is it.

Trails Illustrated maps are great, but there must be 60 of them and that doesn't even cover the whole state. Roads of Colorado is the next step up. Use this map first, and then if you need more detail about a small area get the Trails Illustrated (if available).

I wish they would make these maps for Utah, Wyoming, and Montana also. The Delorme Colorado Atlas & Gazetteer map is OK, but Roads of Colorado is much better. Particularly in respect to small road detail and land status. These maps are almost as good as BLM maps at showing land status (private, BLM, state, USFS, etc.).

Rating:
Summary: Best "atlas" of Colorado
Review: Don't be fooled by the name. This map has far more than the just the "Roads" of Colorado. If you are looking for a map to show you how to drive from Littleton to Englewood, get a free atlas from your insurance agent, but if you want the single best map showing more than just roads, this is it.

Trails Illustrated maps are great, but there must be 60 of them and that doesn't even cover the whole state. Roads of Colorado is the next step up. Use this map first, and then if you need more detail about a small area get the Trails Illustrated (if available).

I wish they would make these maps for Utah, Wyoming, and Montana also. The Delorme Colorado Atlas & Gazetteer map is OK, but Roads of Colorado is much better. Particularly in respect to small road detail and land status. These maps are almost as good as BLM maps at showing land status (private, BLM, state, USFS, etc.).

Rating:
Summary: Good information
Review: I really like the maps that are in this book. This is the best one that I own.

Rating:
Summary: Maps are too small to be useful.
Review: I was pretty disappointed with this guidebook. The introductory textual information on Colorado is helpful, but because the guide primarily shows maps, this text information is very limited in scope.

The maps that comprise the bulk of the guide are too small and compressed to be of any use. All the features shown on the maps are way too tiny to be read with the naked eye. You need a magnifying glass to make out most of the details. And even with a magnifying glass, the dark lines or text against dark green or brown backgrounds make seeing the details quite difficult.

Other mapbooks which I saw in many gas stations, 7-Elevens, etc. while I was traveling in Colorado, are much easier to read and offer plenty of detail for getting around the state by car. For detailed backcountry information, you're still better off buying official topo maps at the numerous ranger stations and outdoor stores scattered around the state.

Rating:
Summary: Maps are too small to be useful.
Review: I was pretty disappointed with this guidebook. The introductory textual information on Colorado is helpful, but because the guide primarily shows maps, this text information is very limited in scope.

The maps that comprise the bulk of the guide are too small and compressed to be of any use. All the features shown on the maps are way too tiny to be read with the naked eye. You need a magnifying glass to make out most of the details. And even with a magnifying glass, the dark lines or text against dark green or brown backgrounds make seeing the details quite difficult.

Other mapbooks which I saw in many gas stations, 7-Elevens, etc. while I was traveling in Colorado, are much easier to read and offer plenty of detail for getting around the state by car. For detailed backcountry information, you're still better off buying official topo maps at the numerous ranger stations and outdoor stores scattered around the state.

Rating:
Summary: Better have good eyes
Review: The map is not up to date with the scenic drives and ghost towns. Must have a magnified glass to read the print is so small in addition to being a map expert to determine what everything means and follow the maps. Stick with Rand McNally!

Rating:
Summary: Roads Of books - Maps for geeks
Review: The series of atlases - Roads Of... - are the best books out there for figuring out where you are when you're living on jerky and sodas while chasing tornadoes in the middle of nowhere with little sleep. Set up like those beloved (expensive) Mapsco books, the atlas allows you to look up every tractor road and 2 lane P.O.S. road in the given state. I only wish they were available for more states. They lay flat when you read 'em and store flat under your portable DSS dish case when you don't need 'em. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Atlas!
Review: This is absolutely the most comprehensive atlas for Colorado that I have seen yet. If you aren't planning on leaving Denver or seeing what's off of the main highways, get a highway map from 7-11. Roads' details are excellent, showing topo info as well as ownership and management, with clear definitions of roadway maintainence (paved, gravel, dirt, ranch roads, trails, two-track, and highway). This atlas makes the DeLorme Gazetteer look like print-offs from mapquest.com. I tossed the Gazetteer when I found The Roads of Colorado. The DeLorme drops the detail for the entire eastern part of the state, which looses sightseeing and recreation opportunities in the southeastern section. The scale is fairly large, 1" eqalling 2.5 miles, and is comparable to BLM maps in acuracy. A MUST for the adventure touring or dualsport motorcyclist, and will assist four wheel drive enthusiasts planning trips in Colorado. I, too, wish Shearer would do the same with their New Mexico atlas.

Rating:
Summary: Marvelous
Review: This is an outstanding achievement and service to the map readers of this world. "Roads of Colorado" combines the topographical data of the DeLorme Atlases with the legal status info of US Forest Service maps. The happy result is that one no longer has to keep bouncing back and forth between the two types of map and reorienting oneself every time. It's all here in one atlas the size of a Rand McNally. The scale is 1:158,400, a little better than the DeLorme series. The legal status is portrayed in colors: pink for incorporated cities; green for national forest; darker green for wilderness areas; pale yellow for deeded land; darker yellow for state land; light blue for BLM; darker blue for national parks. Of course, this means that woods can't be shown, as on a regular topo, but that's a minor drawback when you consider their ever-changing boundaries due to fire and logging and new growth.

The accuracy and comprehensiveness of the road and trail depiction is a delight. I have walked and driven many miles in Colorado, and I can see at a glance that this atlas would have saved me a lot of time and effort wasted getting stuck in the mud and arriving at locked gates.

It's not only useful for hikers and tourists, however. The legal status information is a godsend when you're investigating or investing in real estate. It's also fascinating to see which towns are incorporated and which aren't, and their boundaries. Often, the former are much smaller than the latter.

This work of art could scarcely be improved upon, but if I were asked to do so, I would put latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates on the edges of the maps for GPS usage. (Not a grid on the map itself; that would clutter it up.) Also, certain incorporated towns are not shown because they were incorporated decades ago and no one lives there any more. It would be fascinating to see such towns in pink, both from an historical and an investor's point of view. One such town is Bare Hills City, a Victorian mining town that had over a thousand people living in it in 1905. It would be on p.104 about 5 miles northwest of Red Canyon Park.

I sincerely hope Shearer Publishing does the same thing for all the states, starting with the western ones. I saw their "Roads of New Mexico", and it doesn't even come close to the Colorado atlas for clarity and beauty. Great advances in cartography must have been made at Shearer between the publishing of one and the other.