I recently purchased a new Garmin 60CSx to replace my old 12XL. It is a great unit but the installed topo maps are very basic. The Mapsource maps from Garmin are expensive and I was surfing for downloadable maps and found this site. The maps are free but you are welcome to donate to the site.
http://www.miscjunk.org/mj/mp_cotopo.html
They are very high resolution topo maps that can be downloaded to your computer and then uploaded to your Garmin GPS. Most of the maps are of western states but he is adding more every so often. The maps are unbelievably detailed. I have installed a few to my new Garmin and they are great!
Thanks Bill, I recently bought the same unit and haven't had the time to play with it. This looks great...Doc
You can also find more free topo maps at
http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/
I just got my new 60CSx last Wednesday and I am still getting used to it.
Thanks for the tips gentlemen
Hey, thats another good site and they have some maps that are not on miscjunk! Thanks David.
Glad to help Bill.
Thanks just hooked my secretary up with getting her husband a Garmin 530 2-way grms/gps for Christmas. now he can go buck wild getting maps.Thanks again
Will they download onto any gps I have a magelan trighton and have used nat geographic topo they cost 1.00 per map. Free would be better.
widow sax,
You will need the Mapsource software on your computer before you can install it, plus you need the Mapsource base naps on your GPS before you can upload it to it. I am not familiar with the Magellen units so I can't help you there.
Here are the free maps I use for my Garmin (donations accepted by the creator). It separates the map data by county, so you can only load the ones you need. I was reading his website and he recently had to start hosting the files via bittorrent. There are instructions on the site on how to download the files if anyone is interested.
http://www.ibycus.com/ibycustopo/
Thanks Bill, I have the same unit and it's been working well for me. This looks great. I had been using the SD cards but this may be even better.
As I recall there is some sort of a link on the gpsfiledepot.com site to download Mapsource if you dont have.I didnt go that route since Mapsource came with my 60CSx.
Wow, nice links!! Much better maps for the 60csx. Thanks gang!!!
I have downloaded one and will try it out tonight!
Thank you, Tipsters!
Ray
You can download the Mapsource base maps from Garmin here if you don't already have it.
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=209
Good stuff. My wife gave me a garmin as an early Christmas present and I bought the topo card from them at 84 bucks. Wish I would have looked around a little bit first!
Thanks for the info.