If you've ever searched for free topological maps on the internet, you've probably been disappointed by the results. Not many of them exist, and the ones that do are usually poor in quality.

But thanks to National Geographic, we now have access to high-quality topo maps for any location in the continental U.S. These maps are downloadable free of charge and can be printed using any standard home printer.

national-geographic-topological-maps

To get started, visit the National Geographic interactive map and find the location (by address or manual dragging) for which you want a topo map. Find the closest red pointer, click on it, then click on the image to download the map for that area.

When you download one of these topo maps, they come as five-page PDFs. The first page is an overview that shows the zone along with some surrounding context. The other four pages are zoom-ins on each of the four corners. All five pages fit on letter size paper.

These are the same maps that are provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.

What do you use topo maps for? Hiking? Camping? Landscape photography? Tell us about it in a comment below!