My New Favorite Trail Map Series

Easy-to-use trail maps loaded with info for hikers, mountain bikers and winter users

We have every Trails Illustrated map of Colorado and beyond -- in many cases, several increasingly comprehensive editions both before and after National Geographic took over publication. When I was putting things together for a trip that started in Steamboat Springs where I planned to go for at least one hike, I forgot to grab any of them. I neglected to bring a trail guidebook either. My friend, Reed, and I wanted to find an inetresting trail somewhere in the Mt. Zirkel Wilderness, which is north of Steamboat Springs. She hadn't brought a map or book either. We picked up some basic US Forest Service trail info sheets to help us decide where to go. She read trail descriptions as I drove, and we both thought that the Three Island Lake Trail sounded really good.

We made a pit stop at the Clark Store, a small general store/post office/video rental center/bakery about 20 miles up Routt County Road 129. There I bought a Steamboat-Mt. Zirkel map put out by Sky Terrain Trail Maps. Like other maps in the series, it is printed on sturdy, waterproof and rip-proof material. It includes 16 US Geographical Survey quadrangles, which is a huge area roughly from near the Wyoming border on the north to Rabbit Ears Pass on the south and east and Sleeping Giant/Steamboat Lake State Park to the west.

These detailed, shaded topographic maps are 1:50,000 scale with 80-foot contour lines. They clearly show hiking trails, singletrack mountain biking trails, ATV routes, winter trails for motorized and non-motorized use, campgrounds, campsites, fishing access and wildlife management areas. Mileage and elevation information is clearly shown, and the maps are feature UTM grids for easy use with GPS units, which I don't use by my husband does.

Sky Terrain maps also feature brief descriptions of selected trails and their highlights. The map and also the USFS information sheet describe the Three Island Lake Trail as "popular"and imply that it tends to get crowded. When we reached the parking pullout off FS 433, three vehicles were parked there. We got a late start, and as we were on our way up, we saw all three parties who were on their way down: four people and two dogs, two people and two dogs, and one person and one dog. That was it for the "crowd."

The lovely lake at 9,878 feet is nestled in a high basin. We sat on a log, broke out cheese and crackers and fresh fruit and enjoyed the wunny, wind-still afternoon. For those of us hike in the Front Range, such wilderness solitude is rare -- and virtually non-existent for a "popular" backcountry route.

Addition & Subtraction in Tourism Promotion

Israel Tourist Authority "claims" extra land that it has; Michigan "forgets" one-third of its state

The back page of New Mexico magazine is called "One of Our 50 is Missing," filled with anecdotes and examples about people (some of them officials of some level of government) who think New Mexico is somehow part of Old Mexico rather than the United Sates. The license plate even includes USA to clarify in which country a vehicle is registered. That makesNew Mexico accurate and proactive in identifying itself.

Not so the state of Michigan and the State of Israel whose mistaken maps promoting tourism to their area had to be pulled or corrected.

The Associated Press reported on a kerfuffel caused after Michigan released a map without the Upper Peninsula, separated by two Great Lakes from the more populous lower section. AP noted that the "U.P., which is about the size of Denmark and bigger than nine U.S. states, only has 3% of the state's population" was missing from a map released by Michigan itself. The correct map is shown to the upper right.

Some "Yoopers," as U.P. residents call themselves, felt slighted last year when a state-sponsored tourism commercial only showed the more populous peninsula to the south. The TV ad was later fixed." U.P. residents, who refer to themselves as Yoopers, have legislaion on their side requiring their forested, rural portion of the state to be included on all oficial maps.

The AP report continued, "Last year, some high school students from Escanaba wrote to a textbook publisher after a map in a history book appeared to exclude the U.P. from the borders of the United States. The map colored the U.P. white — like the void surrounding the country — while the rest of Michigan was shaded light blue. The map identified states by their postal codes; the U.P. was designated "IL," for Illinois — which had no label. Other maps have shown the U.P. as part of Wisconsin or Canada.

Meanwhile, across he Atlantic, a poster promoting visitation to Israel was withdrawn by a UK truth-in-advertising watchdog called the Advertising Standards Authority after 442 people complained that a map on the poster (lower right) shows the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights as part of Israel. According to a report in The Guardian, the Tourism Ministry responded that the map was "a general schematic tourism and travel map, rather than a political map."