Product Description

Idaho's boundless recreational opportunities and varied scenery is skillfully captured in Benchmark's Idaho atlas. Landscape Maps^TM show the full range of topography: from the forest stands of the panhandle, the mountainous backlands of central Idaho, to the plains and prairies in the south. The Recreation Guide features complete fishing information, hunting units and listings of campgrounds and RV parks.

The left-hand camera icon shows detail of an atlas "landscape" page, the right-hand camera shows detail of an atlas "recreation" page.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #232388 in Books
• Brand: Benchmark Maps
• Published on: 2005-01-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 95 pages

Review
Benchmark Maps recently released its Idaho Road & Recreation Atlas, which may render the DeLorme Atlas and Gazetteer obsolete. That's not a cheap shot against DeLorme's atlas. It has its flaws, but for years it's been a valuable resource for Idahoans. But Benchmark's atlas seems to have cured all of DeLorme's flaws and created a detailed, easy to use, comprehensive atlas for recreationists. Benchmark spend months in Idaho gathering information and driving 12,000 miles around the state to double check its accuracy. It has three obvious improvements over the DeLorme atlas: the maps on each page overlap so you don't get lost going from page to page, the maps have contour shading so you see mountains, valleys and ridges rather than having to interpret them through topographic lines, and the atlas overlaps border areas with neighboring states. There are many other improvements. -- Roger Phillips. The (Boise) Idaho Statesman

Benchmark Maps recently released its Idaho Road & Recreation Atlas, which may render the DeLorme Atlas and Gazetteer obsolete. That's not a cheap shot against DeLorme's atlas. It has its flaws, but for years it's been a valuable resource for Idahoans. But Benchmark's atlas seems to have cured all of DeLorme's flaws and created a detailed, easy to use, comprehensive atlas for recreationists. Benchmark spend months in Idaho gathering information and driving 12,000 miles around the state to double check its accuracy. It has three obvious improvements over the DeLorme atlas: the maps on each page overlap so you don't get lost going from page to page, the maps have contour shading so you see mountains, valleys and ridges rather than having to interpret them through topographic lines, and the atlas overlaps border areas with neighboring states. There are many other improvements. --Roger Phillips. The (Boise) Idaho Statesman

Customer Reviews

Excellent Choice Of Large Format Maps
Living in Spokane, I find myself doing recreational activities in northern Idaho rather often. Though I own the USGS maps for northern Ideaho, I needed some portable, high quality, and up-to-date maps of the areas I visit. Between Delorme and Benchmark providing these types of maps, I found that Benchmark was easier to navigate from and had slightly better features.

I find the "landscape" style mapping very easy to read and it gives an immediate impression of the landscape - something I find difficult to achieve with standard topographical maps. Major and minor roads, 4x4 trails, hiking trails, and many other through-ways can be found on these sets of maps. Combine that with 7'30" GPS grids, a GPS, and some navigational experience and it's difficult to not know right where you are. It's also nice to see political map features such as forest and county boundaries.

I particularly enjoy the expansive recreation sections that provide additional details about campgrounds, ski locations, hiking trails, fishing spots, local attractions, micro-regional climate data, and many other features.

The only drawbacks to these maps are the higher elevations between 8,000' and 14,000' use the same color index, so it's difficult to guage elvation. The other is that I do wish the scale was slightly smaller as it can be difficult to navigate particularly busy areas - though this is less problematic in Idaho as compared to Washington, Oregon, and other states with denser recreational areas. Overall I feel this set of maps was an excellent investment and has helped me to find my way many times - it should do the same for you.

Disappointed
I live in North Central Idaho. I purchased this atlas because I wanted an up-to-date reference to local roads and recreation sites. I already own an old DeLorme atlas.

When I initially reviewed the maps for my local area, I found numerous errors. Most particularly road names and paved roads being indicated as unpaved. The cover claims that the atlas was "field checked for accuracy." I do not know how much checking was done, or how long ago, but in my area many of these details are incorrect.

In all fairness, the DeLorme atlas also has some errors, but it is copyrighted 1998. I would expect the Benchmark atlas with a 2007 copyright (and claims of field checking) to at least indicate as paved roads that were paved over ten years ago.

I do particularly like the topographical shading and the overlap at the edges of every map.

Amazing Detail
A friend and I recently drove the better part of three days over secondary roads from Fall Creek to Pine, Featherville, Rocky Bar, Steel Mountain, down Phipher Creek, across the Middle and North Forks of the Boise River. Also climbed up to Trinity Peak, Trinity Lakes; up the South Fork of the Boise River and over Dollarhide Summit to Ketchum. Was constantly delighted at the volume of detail that helped us through places we'd never been, and the accuracy of the information about places we knew well. Even showed a narrow, almost impassible track leading to some remote family-owned mining claims. Bravo!