The Best Digital Maps for Overlanding on Gaia GPS USFS Roads and Trails often displays more roads and trails than any other map, making it very helpful for route planning. It can also help you get out of a jam: if you are following a road that ends, you can use this map to find new route opportunities.
MVUM - Motor Vehicle Use Maps
Half the fun of overlanding is dreaming up all the places you’ll go on your next trip. Nothing ramps up the excitement like drawing out a route on your favorite map and planning side excursions, lunch spots, and campsites with the best views. But with all the different maps that are available these days, the choices can be overwhelming. You can order both paper and online maps directly from the Forest Service, National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, or the US Geological Survey. Or you can find all these maps — and more — in one place on Gaia GPS. Gaia GPS offers hundreds of maps and weather overlays that cover the entire globe. We teamed up with the experts at Gaia GPS to bring you a list of the very best digital maps in Gaia GPS’s catalog so can plan and execute your next overlanding adventure with ease.
USFS Roads and Trails The United States Forest Service (USFS) Roads and Trails map is probably the single most useful map layer for overlanding in the US. This map highlights maintained routes, 4x4 trails, back roads, and little-known paths across U.S. national forests and grasslands. Use the USFS Roads and Trails map to find information on road surface, maintenance level, and trail width. Click or tap on a road or trail to learn if the route is passenger vehicle friendly, and if it’s paved, gravel, or made from native material. Additionally, color coded trails indicate which activities, like hiking, biking or motorized sports are allowed on each trail. Just tap or click a trail to learn more details.
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The Motor Vehicle Use Maps (MVUM) use data from the Forest Service to bring vehicle-accessible roads to maximum visibility on the map. As a supplement to the USFS Roads and Trails layer, MVUM maps indicate which type of vehicles are allowed on a road or trail. It also provides information on seasonality, usage, and the condition of various roads. Just tap or click on the route to learn more. The MVUM layer typically contains the most up-todate information on which Forest Service roads are open to motor vehicles, which helps ensure you don’t break any rules or drive where you aren’t supposed to. Not all USFS lands have an MVUM, but this map data serves as the legal standard for trail access regardless of any signage on the ground. MVUM is modeled off of the paper maps, making it easy to switch between paper and digital.
Gaia Topo Gaia GPS’s flagship map — Gaia Topo — is free to use and shows most Forest Service roads and 4WD trails. Best yet, this map provides worldwide topographic map coverage, allowing you to access your map even if you cross the border or sail across the ocean. Gaia Topo brings more details into focus as you zoom into the map. This design makes the map source efficient to download, meaning large swaths of land — even entire states — can be downloaded in a matter of minutes. The apps baselayer also has selectable points of interest, land ownership designation, and many more details that make it easy to discover places to stop along your journey.
Public Lands The Public Lands layer helps you find places to camp on BLM land, and identify land ownership like national parks and forests across the US. Pair the public lands layer with USFS to find free, dispersed campsites as you travel off the grid.
