Finding and buying topo maps for trips to areas that aren’t near where you live can sometimes be challenging, time consuming and expensive in the long run. The good news is that there are resource out there that allow you to obtain USGS quad maps for nearly every part of the United States…for FREE! YAY…thanks Obama! 
Though I’ve found the USGS Store to occasionally be down or very slow at times, with repeated visits, in the end…I’ve usually been able to obtain the map I am after. The maps you receive are 7.5 X 15 Minute maps and of decent resolution, but finding a printer to print them out full size I would imagine would still be tough for most users. Still, even a smaller TOPO map of the area you are headed to is better than nothing and if you really need the full size version, you could always print it out in sections…and then tape all the sections together.
1. Follow this LINK to the USGS Store Map Locator page.
2. Enter the name of the area you’re looking for in the ‘SEARCH‘ box and hit ‘Go‘.
3. Click on the RED indicator on the map closest to that area.
4. Click ‘download‘ next to the appropriate map.
5. Choose ‘save‘ and hit ‘OK‘ in the window that pops up.
6. Open the ZIP file and then drag the PDF file to your desktop.
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Thanks Steve. This could be a great resource.
Though I am an Obama fan, I’m not sure why you’re thanking him for this site. I was getting quads off this site long before he got into office.
Well…it’s good to give Obama a little plug here and there. He’s got a tough road ahead of him.
Steve, Please consider going to metric dimensions on your site. Imperial Standard measurements such as feet,rods,inches are so “old school” Mountains in most of the world are measured in meters. Once one gets used to meters ,feet feel like something
from a very retro-world.
I’ll see what I can do John….thanks.
i second that. try skiing in Europe while throwing around feet measurements….nothing makes you sound like a McD`s eating, Bush voter quite like that.
The maps are as I understand it in the public domain because taxpayer dollars paid for them. The government just hit you up for printing costs. A internet sponsored fund raiser put them on the net several years ago.
http://libremap.org/data/state/idaho/drg/
Other states are there. As already pointed out, printing these full scale is a pain.
While I agree talking meters and such sounds chic in backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering communities, the other side of the coin is that you sound like a science dork to the rest of the world…at least here in the US. Funny though…I was a science major in college…so maybe I should just accept it…eh?
Thanks for that link Ken…a nice addition.
…you sound like a science dork to the rest of the world…at least here in the US…
nice one Whitey.
i wasn’t referring to you specifically gringo…