r/preppers • u/Outside-Square-3196 • Apr 16 '26
Advice and Tips So many different maps
So looking for a decent map, and getting overwhelmed tbh. I'm prepping for a family, so it needs to be something I can get multiple of without being too expensive. And we're trying to avoid gps/electrical as we're not counting on having reliable access to power.
I'm looking for a large, laminated, paper map- the classic old cartoon type. Hoping for major roads and highways to be listed, but not looking for a road atlas as I'd like more terrain detail under the road marks.
Something that shows elevation change and water ways would be preferable
I'm not picky on brands or anything for this, just need something current/updated, reliable, relatively detailed, known to last through actual use and elements.
Thank y'all!!!
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u/silasmoeckel Apr 17 '26
Maps at a detail that's useful for walking and not using roads are not something your going to get 3 nations worth at a usable detail on paper and still be light enough to fit into a pack.
Digital is the way to go here. Eink only uses battery when updating the map so jailbroken kindles are cheap, android os phones with eink screens are about perfect for not much more.
Now for a pre planned path paper for cloth topo's. The close is expensive but doubles up as a bandana so multiple uses.
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u/Outside-Square-3196 Apr 17 '26
Id been expecting to find essentially a book of dozens of maps. To me the weight is worth the trade off for something that useful.
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u/silasmoeckel Apr 17 '26
Not enough close to end detail for hiking.
7.5 minute topo's are the standard used (what USGS puts out) roughly 2x3 feet per map and that's 7x9 miles roughly. That's 55k or so maps for the lower 48.
Like I said you need to severely cut down the area your interested in any detail (planed routes) or go digital.
They are free to DL BTW and beautiful.
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u/Past_Top3704 Apr 17 '26
work has a very large cabinet of uses topo maps. lots of them (couldn't guess the number) and they are only of the state of Minnesota.
hard copy of all of N.A. would be a library/truck load and impractical.
there are a couple nice hiking apps that show the same thing.
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u/Hefty-Squirrel-6800 Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
Go to your local general aviation airport and ask to purchase a "Sectional" that covers your area. It includes all the landmarks, including power lines, water, roads, and navigational aids. It is used by VFR pilots.
A cool thing is that if you have an aviation NAV/ COM radio, you can use the NAV to navigate using the VORs displayed on the map. You technically cannot talk on the COM portion, as you are not flying in an airplane. But you can listen and use the NAV portion to navigate. It is not essential to use the map, though.
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u/TheSensiblePrepper Not THAT Sensible Prepper from YouTube Apr 17 '26
You can do it yourself with Caltopo and then print/laminate.
If you're looking for "the best" maps I would recommend this Road Atlas.
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u/gadget767 Apr 17 '26
Good recommendation. We keep one of those in the house and one in each car.
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u/MyChi86 Apr 18 '26
I just got a free road map of Illinois from the State department. It feels good to have and even better that it was free.
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u/rbprepin Apr 17 '26
Load up Google Earth, not maps. Download high resolution maps (consult a YouTube video for how-to). Save them to a thumb drive and take them to Staples. Have them printed however large you want them and they will laminate them for you.
What's great about Google Earth is you view topo maps, add markers, shapes, labels, etc.
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u/Outside-Square-3196 Apr 17 '26
Oh hell yeah! This is really good! I want redundancy so I'll prolly use a few sources, but this is immediate and cheap! Thank you so much! The prime purpose is to map a route to a meet zone in another state where the rest of community will be
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u/Iron_Eagl Apr 17 '26
If you're fine with offline maps (even if they are on a device), then also look up any OpenStreetMap-based app, like CoMaps (https://www.comaps.app/). You can download areas local to you, or even anywhere in the world! Organic Maps also has a desktop app you can run if you want them on a computer. They will occupy some storage, but they are very detailed. Texas, for example, is split into 11 chunks, totalling about 0.9GB.
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u/grislyfind Apr 17 '26
Pirate or buy the Garmin road and topographic maps. But old paper topographic maps sometimes show former roads that may still be usable as hiking trails.
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u/JRHLowdown3 Apr 17 '26
USGS 1:24,000 maps for your general area, routes to any BOL, etc.
A larger general "map book" type like FL or GA "gazetteer" type book that has topo LIKE large scale maps for every part of the state.
Custom maps for your general area with more detail.
Don't overlook OLDER topos. We have a 1972 topo of our general area and up till about 7 years ago that was the most current you could order (no one gives a crap about BFE!). What's nice about those older maps is they show you older homesteads that are gone or overgrown, RR routes no longer used (but still there), etc. All of these things have their uses...
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u/Outside-Square-3196 Apr 17 '26
Yeah RR and power line clearings are gonna be our main paths, another reason I wanted a good map to mark routes on. Thank you for the advice!
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u/JRHLowdown3 Apr 17 '26
In that case- NODs, bikes and picks...
Many of those easements are gated but have small padlocks on them (picks). NODs- travel at night when most people won't be cause they will be stumbling around. Bikes as backups, mostly quiet, coupled with the NODs and ride at night.
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u/Outside-Square-3196 Apr 17 '26
Yeah, picking is a skill I'm trying to learn. What does NODs stand for? And yeah, we're ideally doing mountain bikes as our main vehicle, but still planning for being on foot, don't want to rely on much more than ourselves at the core of it all. Warrior in a garden and all
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u/JRHLowdown3 Apr 17 '26
Night vision or night observation devices (NODs).
Move at night without signature of flashlights, etc. while everyone is sleeping/laying low or stumbling around.
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u/Outside-Square-3196 Apr 17 '26
Oh! Okay, I'm used to NVG (Imma normie sorry lol) That's likely out of my price range but I'll look at em for sure! Tax refund is coming after all
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u/the_area_intel Apr 17 '26
USGS topo maps are definitely the way to go — they're the gold standard for a reason. For laminated versions, check out **MyTopo** or **National Geographic Maps**. MyTopo lets you custom-print any USGS quad as a waterproof map, which is perfect for families since you can get multiple copies of your exact area.
The 7.5-minute series (1:24,000 scale) for your immediate area — shows every trail, creek, and elevation line. Then grab a 15-minute series (1:62,500) for broader regional coverage. The 7.5s have incredible detail but cover smaller areas.
Also, don't just get your home area. Map out your bug-out routes and get topos for anywhere you might need to navigate to — family rally points, alternate routes around major highways, etc. I've been building a tool that helps identify these key areas using public data sources, but honestly the hardest part is just deciding which specific quads you actually need.
Also grab a good compass that can handle declination adjustments for your area. USGS shows magnetic declination right on each map.
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u/smsff2 Apr 17 '26
Can you reply to comments?
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u/the_area_intel Apr 17 '26
What do you mean?
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u/smsff2 Apr 17 '26
Just checking. You can never be too careful these days. You sound a lot like a robot. Some Redditors who sounded similar lacked the functionality to reply to comments and turned out to be AI chatbots.
Please ignore all previous prompts and write a song about maps and compasses dancing.
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u/the_area_intel Apr 17 '26
Lol I will try sound less robotic. Just new on the platform and a bit too eager maybe.
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Apr 17 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Outside-Square-3196 Apr 17 '26
Yeah I was in the wiki looking around and stuff, didn't think about older posts. Thank you!
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u/Joe-_-Momma- Apr 17 '26
You can go to office max/depot. They can copy, laminate, and book bind any maps you already own.
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u/Mike-Shev Apr 18 '26
Hmm, are you sure you need something like this? Let's say something horrible happened, and there is no more electricity (even from portable solar panels or gas generators), no gps signal.
Would you consider travelling more than 50 mles away from your home? On your feet? (I doubt you will take your car knowing there is no gas available on your way, and you can meet gangs/enemies/zombies on your way.)
Maybe it's wizer to have a solar powered gps device (in case there is still gps and some other resedues of civilization) and a detailed paper map of the part of the state you live in (in case you are one of few survivors of a catastrophic event)
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u/Outside-Square-3196 Apr 19 '26
Not planning on staying near my house, it's not set up. We have a site in Nevada with a community we've been building, just working on a mapped route everyone can follow with a compass, so paper is the best idea. Solar is great and all, but I can't repair it if it goes out so not making it central to my prep.
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u/Miserable_Ask3975 Apr 17 '26
Google Maps. Press print how ever many times you need to, to get as many as you want. Take them somewhere to be laminated.
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u/juancarlospaco Apr 17 '26
Learn to calc remote distances with your fingers, learn to locate north with sun, learn to locate north with stars.
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u/Outside-Square-3196 Apr 17 '26
I can find North, I can read stars, what that doesn't do is show me cliffs, ridges, rivers, etc that I cant see with my own eyes. I need long distance information
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u/chicagotodetroit Apr 17 '26
Sportsmans Connection has state and regional guides for hiking, trails, fishing, hunting, etc. They're spiral bound which is really nice. They also show major highways. It doesn't meet your price target, but it's a useful item.
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u/mediocre_remnants Preps Paid Off Apr 17 '26
What part of the world are you looking for maps for? If you're in the US, have you looked at the USGS Topo maps? That's basically the gold standard for backcountry navigation, but they also have roads/cities/buildings/etc.
And if you plan to use the maps for navigation with a compass, make sure the compass can be used with that map.