The Mountain Culture

TopoGoogle

November 20th, 2007 by David Swift

The Tetons at your fingertips with only a few clicks on your iBook.

Science has proven that the accumulated weight of National Geographics will eventually trigger Doomsday. Imagine how at risk that makes fault-ridden, adventure-reading loving Jackson Hole.

However, it may well be our collective accumulation of topological maps outweighs the valley’s NatGeos. But that’s not what bothers me. What bothers me is the time I could not find a topo to [REDACTED], a sublime and little-traveled spot in the Wind River Range. It was 10 at night and we were leaving in a few hours.

That was then.

If you think a plug for Google Earth is forthcoming you’re partly correct. I’m talking about something long overdue: downloadable and printable USGS topos.

First, download this zipped file: http://dierks.org/usgs.kmz

Launch Google Earth. Have it open the file “usgs.kml” which you’ll have if it unzipped properly.

Wait. And wait. Your computer isn’t hung. Google Earth merely is glomming onto a database of every 7.5-minute quadrangle in the United States.

Look at Places. Select any state. Click any named quadrangle. Google Earth points to that place with a popup. Click “TIFF.”

A hi-res scan of USGS’s finest Koh-I-Noor contour art will find a happy home on your hard drive.


David J. Swift is a photographer and writer based in Jackson Hole. Then again, who isn’t?

Posted in Rants, Tech, Tips

6 Responses

  1. Pat Rabun ~ November 20th, 2007 at 10:46 am

    I`m having trouble getting the topo map to open in something usable. When I download the topo, it downloads in Quicktime with an image I can`t seem to modify of zoom into a size I can use. Any tips/ help would be appreciated!!

  2. Brian ~ November 20th, 2007 at 12:53 pm

    This sounds like a great idea. However, when I open the file through Google Earth, it does not save a high res topo to my hard drive; it opens a very low-res topo in Firefox/Quicktime. Do you know anywhere I can get some support for this program?

    Brian

  3. dswift ~ November 25th, 2007 at 3:30 pm

    It’s hard to help someone without knowing one’s level of computer expertise, so bear with me.

    Pat, when you say “it downloads in Quicktime” you probably mean that Quicktime launches when you double-click the map. Launch a graphics application (Photoshop, Preview, iPhoto, et al) and use Open or Import to view the map. Make sure the file is tagged .tif or .tiff.

    Brian, see above. The TIFs I downloaded are 6,000+ pixels long. It sounds like Firefox is loading the image like it would a JPG. I suspect the image appears low-res because it’s displaying pixels at 1:1.

    Shortcut to the above (Macs only): Press the Control key and click on the map’s icon. The Open With . . . pop-up lists all valid and many invalid apps. Pick ‘em until something works.

    If this does not help, please reply with information about your system. I know Macs, not so hot with Windows.

    David

  4. S. Reed ~ November 27th, 2007 at 5:30 pm

    too bad it doesn’t have topos for AK

  5. Adam ~ November 29th, 2007 at 7:33 pm

    Sweet, works like you say!

    saved as .tif on HD.

  6. Ryan ~ January 6th, 2008 at 9:31 am

    In windows, open up explorer (ie. My Documents or My Computer or whatever.)

    Click Tools>Folder Options>File Types

    Under Extensions scroll down to and select TIFF.

    Under “Details for ‘TIFF’ Extension” hit Change.

    Select Windows picture and fax Viewer and Hit Ok.

    Then try downloading a topo again.

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