Best topo maps for Garmin Montana 600

[AK Troutbum]

I just got a Garmin Montana 600 GPS (thanks again Shrek), and I'm looking to either purchase a chip/card with high quality topo's or maybe just download free ones. This is all very foreign to me so I'm basically looking for any and all help I can get. What I would like to be able to do is turn my GPS on and have it show me where I'm at on my topo map and where particular waypoints that I've marked are. Then be able to track to those waypoints with the advantage of contour lines etc. The best detail and color would also be nice. Does that make sense? I'm just looking for what's available for the state of Alaska.

 

[wapitibob]

You won't have "high quality" topos with an sd card from brand x, they're vector based. If you want a mytopo style, (raster based) you need to make a custom map from a portion of the map and put it on the garmin, or hack the bios on the garmin, create a .jnx file (birdseye) from a raster based topo and put that topo in the birdseye folder.

Having gone the full route with raster topos and sat imagery, 99.9% of the time, the only imagery I now use on my Montana is the hunt maps from huntinggpsmaps (onX). They have enough topo detail, have the blm/forest/private, and unlike most topos, show all the old decommissioned roads.

Having said all that mumbo jumbo, the huntinggpsmaps for Alaska will do all you want. If you go the sd card route, it will be a seamless integration. When you turn it on, it will go to your location on the topo map. You can make waypoints or record your tracks. Then, when back home you can plug it in to your pc and having basecamp on that pc, it will load the map and your gps data. The map will be the same on that's on the gps so everything flows.

This is the NM map on Basecamp. Alaska will be similar.

 

[Stid2677]

I run the Nat Geo Topo and Huntinggpsmaps PLAT maps for Alaska on my Montana. The Plat maps that show landownership are worth the money and have opened areas to me that I would not known about without them. Plus it shows NP and Management Areas. I have 3 maps sets loaded on mine and switch depending on what I want.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

I like the maps at huntinggpsmaps.com that shows private, public, state reserves, nat'l forests in different colors.

 

[kaboku68]

www.gpsfiledepot.com

Select Alaska enhanced 24,000 topo and adjust your unit so it renders with the greatest detail.
Download the BLM map with BLM trails and landmarks.
Upload the Tiff file onto your unit.
Spend the money on packit Gourmet meals for sheep season.
give the cheesy smile for the win.

 

[Shrek]

I'm sure you are done looking but I used gpsfiledepot year before last and it was fine but I bought the onxhuntmap last fall and it was worth the money for navigating around private property with confidence. I couldn't have hunted where I did last fall without it.

 

[AK Troutbum]

I'm sure you are done looking but I used gpsfiledepot year before last and it was fine but I bought the onxhuntmap last fall and it was worth the money for navigating around private property with confidence. I couldn't have hunted where I did last fall without it.

I just ordered the Onxhuntmap from Amazon yesterday so I should be getting it in a few days. After a lot of looking around, this seemed to be exactly what I was looking for.

 

[MuleyFever]

I dont know about the others but the Garmin HuntView cards have topo with land boundaries and photos and can be viewed in 3D.

Shrek, what did the card have that the free files from gpsfiledepot did not? I am curious because the files I have used from there for Utah have had the private land boundaries.