Garmin TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD - West Coast and Nevada

Comments about Garmin TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD - West Coast and Nevada:

I read all the negative reviews and was leery of buying this DVD. I decided to take a chance and glad I did. I used this DVD with my old Garmin Quest on an off-road motorcycle ride in Central OR. Overall the software was spot on when compared to USGS maps. Create waypoints then create a route based on those waypoints. I would recommmend this software and base all the previous reviews on user error.

Comments about Garmin TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD - West Coast and Nevada:

Topo Maps (free app) on my iPhone is better than the $100.00 Garmin maps. My app has the real USGA 24k topos, while Garmin uses a cheesy knock up that is poorer in every regard. Topo Maps is more legible, more accurate, and of course free.

Garmin had better step up to the plate and deliver on their software. Every day that goes by the smartphone and iPad products get better and better while Garmin relies on outdated maps (from 2009) and sticks with a stone age interface.

We know that stand alone GPS devices are dying the death of a thousand cuts, but Garmin is slicing its jugular by resting on its laurels while the real world passes it by.

Comments about Garmin TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD - West Coast and Nevada:

Loading took 45 minutes but worked well. After that the product is totally NOT user friendly. Very poor maps, no detail(like structures that are or were there) Before purchasing I read the reviews and thought it can't be that bad, It IS! I would get close to where I wanted to be and the program would hang. Next I will try CD's from [@] and if that fails I will go back to pure paper maps. I would not use this IF it were FREE!

Comments about Garmin TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD - West Coast and Nevada:

Software: I bought this CA/NV/OR/WA 24K topo disk along with an Etrex 20. The two were my first GPS purchase, so I came into the map installation with no the prior knowledge except what I'd gained researching what to buy. The package contains a CD with minimal instructions: put it in your computer, run the set-up, and follow the instructions. (I'm using a PC with Windows 7.) That's mostly true, although the installed version of the management program, BaseCamp, was, I learned a little later, several versions old. The check updates button reported all was current. Sometime later, I found and downloaded a much newer, and much more capable, version at the Garmin website. From there, all was fairly smooth. BaseCamp documentation isn't great, but it's workable. A little problem-solving is sometimes needed though: you can be on your own to figure out how to string individually well-documented steps together to execute some larger task. The videos that advertise themselves when you open the new (downloaded) version of BaseCamp help a bit here.

Map data: As for the maps themselves, I'm reasonably happy based on an initial review. Topographic detail seems good. Trail coverage is good but not perfect. I will use the GPS mainly for hiking and backpacking in state parks, national parks, and national forest wildernesses. To get a sense of how much I might rely on these maps, I took a look at some of the places I've visited in the last few years. California state park trail coverage – I looked at Henry Coe, Robert Lewis Stevenson, and Prairie Creek – seems incomplete. Some trails are there; some not. The Miner's Ridge Camp at Prairie Creek was in the wrong place. National parks are better. A tour around Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon showed all the trails I expected plus some extras. For example, the now-abandoned routing of the John Muir Trail over Junction Pass is on the map. That's good if you know the status of this historic now-partly-cross-country route. It's not if it leads you to expect a maintained trail. National forest coverage looks to match what's on the 1995 series of updates to the USGS Quadrangle maps based Forest Service revisions. The trails are there, but not all match what's on the ground today. John Muir Wilderness data looks pretty good. There are even a few well-used unofficial routes. The full route over Italy Pass is mapped, even though some is cross-country. Given that, I was a little surprised to see no trails mapped in the Pioneer Basin above Lake 1. I saw more more gaps and deviations relative to what I know is on the ground in both the Ventana and South Warner Wildernesses. All told, this disk's data is probably as good as could reasonably be expected, but it's worthwhile to seek out some of the supplemental freeware trail maps that can be found on line.

Comments about Garmin TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD - West Coast and Nevada:

Garmin locks the software to your serial number. If you break or lose your GPS and buy a new one, prepare to buy the software again. Also, if you buy a new computer, reload your OS or any number of other changes, you will need to call Garmin to unlock. Map set has many errors that result in routing issues.

Comments about Garmin TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD - West Coast and Nevada:

I purchased this software to load on the Oregon 450 that I bought. I loaded the software on my PC and started playing around with it. It was not obvious at first how to use any of the software, but with only a few minutes with it and 'Help' I was able to to get some maps loaded on my GPS and could set waypoints and routes in BaseCamp.

My first successful route was Whitney Portal to Mt. Whitney via Trail Camp and Mt. Muir. The route distance much shorter than expected (8.7 miles vs. 11 miles actual) and the estimated time was less than 3 hours (normally the round trip is 10+ hours with most of the time doing the ascent). I figured the software would be wrong on distance since switchbacks tend to throw trail distances off. I also figured that I needed to change speed settings for walking to get a better time estimate. There is a screen to change autoroute settings, but apparently one can only change average speeds for driving as the pedestrian mode had all settings grayed out.

I then looked closer at various details on the trip. Mt Muir was listed as a less than 14,000 ft peak, and Mt Whitney is likewise listed as significantly shorter than other sources list it.

As I mentioned these issues to my girlfriend, she suggested I check out a few other areas that we are very familiar with. So I scrolled down to the Cottonwood Lakes/Mt Langley/Horseshoe Meadows area. To my great surprise I saw roads across Cottonwood Lakes. One of the roads is shown as perfectly straight from Cottonwood lakes to South Lakes, another has a long straight section across a small cliff. Just to be clear, the roads do not exist and are impossible to be where they are shown, even a hiker needs ropes, cams, and 5.7+ climbing skills to traverse some of the places where it shows roads. The trails are similar to old USGS data, but not the same. There are a couple trails shown in the lakes area that are not there, and it does not show a couple trails that are there.

Nevermind the minor annoyances the other reviewers mentioned, like visual quality and usability. The map data is sufficiently incorrect to be potentially dangerous to use in the backcountry. I am returning this product.

Comments about Garmin TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD - West Coast and Nevada:

Software installs easily, nice interface with Garmin GPS units. Software is fairly easy to use. Resolution is very good (not quite as good as the NG topos but for the people who adventure in several states, this is the way to go). The only negative is the time it takes to transfer maps to the GPS unit. Make sure you allow several hours if you are transferring a lot of data.

Comments about Garmin TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD - West Coast and Nevada:

The dvd installed, but it does not have any useful manuals. There is some information in the help as to how to install it and the basic things. No info whatsoever as to the usage. I wanted to download N CA maps to my Oregon 450 since it had lots of storage space left but it does not tell how to select an area to download or what or give info to the usage. Garmin has no info online either. The maps look awful compared to my National Geographic TOPO maps. I will return them since they are of no use, as other people mentioned in their reviews.

Comments about Garmin TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD - West Coast and Nevada:

I have always had to stick up for garmin's Mapsource when I would hear people say how terrible it was to use on a pc. I would explain that sure it sucks on the pc but its great on the gps. I would brag to them how garmin would use accurate map datum and all the old and current trails and roads were included on the program. Other gps software lacked in this category.
When I found out that garmin was making a new program that was at a 24k resolution I was excited.
I bought it, loaded it up on my gps map 60csx and hopped on the bike and cruised around town to check out the new features. Awesome I thought. This program even doubles as a city navigator and allows the unit to give turn by turn directions. What a bonus I thought. I took it hiking and set up a route by just dragging the cursor from point a to b and clicked goto. The unit asked if I wanted to follow trails/roads or straight line. I chose trails and it highlighted the trails and took me there. Great!!
Now for the real test. A dirt bike, or should I say hiking so that some people don't get all butt hurt, trip to northern Nevada and southern Oregon. MY friend had set up some routes and was leading the way. A few miles into the trip we wanted to go up a side road and check something out. I looked at my gps and asked what road? He said the one up a few hundred feet. I told him that my gps with the new program didn't show a road. Hmmm, weird. I thought maybe it might just be a fluke but no. Turns out that a lot of back country roads, trails, landmarks, etc are not on garmins 24k but these features were on mapsource.
I went hiking in the sierra nevada and sure enough there were more trails and roads that are on the usgs topo maps but not garmins newest mapping software.
What a joke. I am so disappointed that garmin went backwards with this and chose to use some junk datum for their newest software.

So if you want the newest and most expensive stuff then buy this but if you want your gps to do what it is supposed to do then buy the older mapsource program and not the 24k. The 24k will get you lost if you depend on your gps to get from a to b.

Comments about Garmin TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD - West Coast and Nevada:

I bought the software with high hopes. This product turned out like all other Garmin software products. The maps look like their drawn with crayons, the functions are ultra basic and the overall design looks like it was done by some guy in his garage. Come on Garmin, you make the best GPS's in the world...why can't you figure out software??? I returned the software and bought the National Geographic Topo for Washington. WOW...what a great product!! The maps are incredible and the program functionality is great! With this software you can only download the waypoints, tracks and routes but this is all you need to stay on course. A printed out map serves to show all topo and features. You should always carry a map anyway! So I use the map and refer to my GPS and BANG! i'm off bushwacking and heading out up the the mountain where there are no trails.

Good job Nat.Geo. way to stay ahead of the pack!!