Praise to Mark Granger's Scenicmaps for iPad

[burquedoka]

I've finally moved on from my old school PC tablet running NatGeo TOPO and joined the modern age, ponying up to a new 128 GB iPad. I have drug my feet over the last few years due to a lack of anything worth a **** in the realm of off road nav for the iPad, we all know the story. MotionX has been praised, though I'm not terribly impressed, I just hate having to down load tiles and I don't really find the maps to be that great.
I stumbled upon Mark Granger's Scenicmaps one sleepless night, and holy cow, what a great mapping app. The open source maps ( meaning maps from a data source that is free to all for use and is updated and added to by users like you and me. Check out the site openstreetmap.org).the maps look great at all levels of zoom, and the data is very accurate and concise, even on remote back country road in the middle of utah and colorado, Add on a 3D rendering that gives it a Google Earth feel to it, and you've got what I consider the best offroad navigation tool available, period. It is a game changer in my view. Oh yeah, the best part is there is no downloading those stupid tiles of where your going on your trip, you've got the whole country on your device (the whole US costs $30 and consumes 6gb of space. STOP BITCHING, IT'S WORTH IT!) It is missing a few little doo-dads like trip computer bs and things like that, but hey, that's where the iPad is so cool when you can run some other program that has these items running in the background.
I am a stickler for ease of use, accuracy and realistic readability of my digital maps in my Gwagen. This program is going to be a major player with in my quiver of nav apps on the iPad, that I know for sure.

 

[codename607]

This is awesome! A few weeks ago I purchased an Ipad Mini to use for navigational purposes. At first I couldn't find a whole lot of information in regards to offline mapping but this app just may work.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[off-roader]

Yeah I like his app a lot because it's self contained and really inexpensive!

I do find that some trails are not shown on the map. It's unavoidable on any map that's typically updated by it's users instead of the many maps that are much more expensive.

Alternatively if Overland Navigator ever becomes available for the iPad, I'll be getting it also.

 

[robgendreau]

By $30 do you mean that's the price if you purchase Western US and the other parts? I didn't see one offering for that amount.

I have the Grand Canyon iteration, and while I like the fact that it's sort of like Google Earth without an internet connection, and hence you can use it offline, I don't use it much. But maybe it depends on your style of travel.

I find apps that can use multiple map sources far more useful, and I don't want to have to rely on one map. For instance, GrangerFX maps are nice for an overall plan. But if I wanna hike, I want a topo. And I want the park map if I'm in a park, and the USFS maps for when I'm in the forest so I can see what's open, etc. So for me, I didn't use this app that much and instead went to GaiaGPS and Avenza's PDF-Maps. Still find those two the most useful, but YMMV. I tried the Trimble apps, but they're buggy and have a way to go. And PDF-Maps is FREE although some maps cost money. But all the USNPS park maps are free, as are topos in the US and Canada (and you can download free BC 1:20k maps, see my other post). Check it out; would make a great supplement to what you've already got.

Rob

 

[burquedoka]

Yeah, I meant $30 for the whole US since it takes three regions to cover coast to coast, at $10 each.

 

[off-roader]

Canada's also available now as well as Alaska.