What alternative topographic maps exist in the USA?

Question

This answer recommends topographic maps as downloadable from the USGS. A comment holds that those are definitely the best thing for the US.

An except for the San Joaquin river near Mammoth Lakes looks like this:

When I look at the same place with the interactive map at postholer.com, it looks quite different:

The latter map appears to be from mytopo.com. I see a number of differences:

• The USGS map has more rivers
• The USGS map shows elevation in feet, whereas the mytopo map shows elevation in meters (I personally prefer metric)
• The mytopo map contain what I suppose is a hiking trail (I didn't check the legend), this is not shown at the USGS map
• The mytopo map uses shading and draws some contours with a thicker line

Mytopo writes that their maps are made from the original US Geological Survey topographic maps, yet the two excerpts printed here do not show the exact same information.

Are there other map series besides those two? For hiking on- and off-trail, what map is most accurate and complete?

Answer 1

From personal experience, I would say that maps made by an organization that focuses on the area in question are the most accurate. For instance, here in the Easter USA, I wouldn't head out on the Appalachian Trail without a map from the ATC or into the Adirondak Mountains without a map from the ADK.

Maps by an organization like this are typically updated annually, and the organization can give you data from others who travel the land by foot about current conditions that any other commercial entity can't.

To stay with non-profits, local chapters of the International Orienteering Federation may have created very detailed maps of these areas for their competitions. The symbology is different, but is absolutely geared for someone traversing the area on foot.

If the area doesn't have an organization that maintains the trails there, for a commercial map, I tend to look to DeLorme first, as I've used their products for years and trust them. Your mytopo.com also appears to be a good resource.

Both of these take the raw USGS terrain data, and aggregate data from other sources to create maps with details more relevant for their customer base.

Yes, USGS is the source of all base data for these maps, but the primary mission of the USGS isn't to serve hikers. Plus, I find that the standard 7.5 minute quad too large to resolve important details for a hiker.

The ATC mapping page has several more details about companies who create custom topographic maps, as well as sources for raw GIS data that you can combine with your own field survey data to create your own, completely customized maps.