Background

There are a lot of apps out there that users bring on the trail with them for mapping and navigational purposes, but I never really enjoyed any of them enough to use out on the trail. traditionally I have always been a paper map and compass guy and would use my phone or Delorme to grab a point to plot myself if I needed a fix.

For almost all my adventures I would create custom maps that use MGRS (Military Grid Reference System) instead of latitude and longitude as I prefer the MGRS coordinate system for navigating. I don't remember how but I stumbled on Caltopo years ago and it has always been my goto place for creating and printing my own maps ever since.

Caltopo the website isn't some shiny super elegant looking website, but it is hands down the best place to build, save, and print customs maps. I won't go to into detail on the website here since this is a review of the app which is in beta but just go check them out.

Intro

On 22 December 2018, the Caltopo Android Beta app was announced on the Caltopo Blog, and I was super excited to finally have my extensive Caltopo map library in my pocket! I may prefer paper maps but electronic backups are always nice and can be convenient when I do not have tome to run to the store to print my own maps from Caltopo.

Beta Warning: Yes this app is definitely in beta. I do not recommend taking this as your only means of navigation on the trail. The basics work great, but there are some design quirks that I hope get resolved before being officially released.

App Pricing

The app is free but, if you are already a subscriber to Caltopo you get access to offline maps. I will quote the release blog post to summarize what you get if you subscribe:

The app is free, and for now the only restricted feature is offline map downloads, which are tied to existing CalTopo plans. Basic accounts get 5GB/yr, which is enough to cover the entire JMT at high resolution (2 meter / pixel or zoom 16) with the USGS, NAIP Imagery, MapBuilder Topo/Hybrid/Overlay, shaded relief and slope angle shading layers. Pro accounts get 30GB/yr, which can cover the PCT with those layers twice over at a moderate resolution (4m/px or zoom 15).

Feature Overview

The obvious first feature I will talk about is the map itself. One of the reasons why I love Caltopo so much is there basic MapBuilder Topo layer is beautiful. MapBuilder Topo layer is clean easy to read and doesn't look like its a map from the 1920s.

The map interface is clean and uncluttered which made me happy right off the start. In the top right corner, it shows you your center coordinates and elevation. The center of the map has a small crosshair which makes it easy to move around to get coordinates of specific locations.

Along the top, there are 5 buttons:

  1. Main App Menu
  2. Settings
  3. Map Items
  4. GPS
  5. Layers

The Main app Menu is where you can access some of the main Caltopo features:

Under the Location Tracking, you can turn on To features:

  1. Follow Me - Keeps map centered on your location while you move
  2. Record Me - Will record your data as you move

I honestly just found these two features which make me happy because I was annoyed when I used the app last time while wheeling in my jeep in the desert. Next time the follow me feature will be great for having my map displayed while I drive.

I am excited to also use the record me feature while driving in new locations on off-road trails. I still need to test this feature too, as I am curious as to where or how it will save my track. I am assuming it will just record it as a new line on a map as if I was building one on the website.

I will skip talking about the Offline Layers for now, as I will dive deep into that feature here in a little bit.

Next up is the App Settings:

In the app settings, you can log into your Caltopo account, address different map settings, set your recorded track detail level and your tile Cache size. Currently, there is no explanation on what the different record track details mean. There are currently options for, low, medium, high and highest. I am assuming that is the amount of time between recorded points while recording a track.

The next big app menu option is "Your Maps" and this is where all your saved maps are that you built using Caltopo. I have been using Caltopo for awhile so I have a decent sized list of maps:

The "Your Maps" page is where I was a little disappointed and is where I hope the first big change after the app comes out of beta is made.

At first, I was excited because I saw what looked like a sync button to the left of each map name. From what I can tell these just sync the map data and points from the Caltopo Server to your phone. SO if you edit a map on your computer and then open the Caltopo app you will have to sync them together to get your latest changes.

What I was hoping for was for a download button for an individual map. I was hoping to have a one-click download to save the map and offline map tiles to my phone.

Basically, from the "Your Map" page you can quickly pull up any map you have made but you can not download maps from here. When you click on a map that you have created it will load:

Any points of interest or routes you made will all show up, it is awesome except for not being able to easily download the app.

Downloading Map Tiles

As I already hinted at above downloading maps is not the best experience at this time. If you click on "Offline Maps" from the apps main menu you will be brought to a page with a map with a bunch of grid squares on it:

On the top left drop down you can pick what layer or map type you want to download and to the right, you can pick what level resolution you would like of the map. You then click on the grid squares you want to download and they will turn yellow. Once you select all the grid squares you want to download you then click the small download button in the top right. Once downloaded the grid squares will turn blue.

I have not figured out how to clear downloaded maps at this time.

My biggest gripe about downloads it what I mentioned earlier, there is no one-click download for maps you have already created. If you created a map, you must remember the general area of the world it is in topographically then move to that area and guess which grid squares to download and home your map you created fits within those squares.

I also find the 5/GB per year model for paying customers confusing. I would like to download maps for one trip, clear them after the trip then download new maps for the next trip. The 5/GB per year model makes me think even if I cleared the downloads from my phone, that I will not be able to download more maps after I have downloaded 5/GB. This really concerns me since I am more or less guessing right now which grid squares to download for any particular trip.

Map Layers

Where Caltopo website and the Android app really shine are in its available Map Base Layers and Overlays. There are a ton of awesome map layers to choose from:

  • MapBuilder Topo
  • MapBuilder Hybrid
  • USGS 7.5'
  • FSTopo (2013)
  • FSTopo (2016)
  • Marine Charts
  • NAIP (2013-2015)
  • NAIP (2011-2013)
  • False Color IR
  • Shaded Relief
  • Enhanced Relief
  • Terrain Relief
  • Open Street Map
  • TF Outdoors
  • NPS Visitor
  • USFS Visitor
  • Daily Satellite

I normally used the MapBuilder Topo for navigating but I was really excited to play around with the NPS Visitor map layer. This layer puts all the Nation Park maps in the palm of your hands! I can't wait to try this one out at a park and really hope I can download and store those on my phone offline too!

In addition to the map overlays above you can place some awesome overlays on top of them:

Unfortunately, as you can see above the Map Layers page in the beta app doesn't quite look like its 100% finished being designed yet but the features are all there and work. Assuming the aesthetics will all be fixed in the final app release.

Conclusion

That is my quick and dirty Caltopo Android App Beta overview. Its amazing work so far, and I hope the ease of map downloads gets fixed in future releases. I will continue to play with this app my future adventures and I will keep this thread updated with any news of new releases and my experiences while using the app.

Feel free to ask any questions below or let me know what you think of the app so far!

    6 days later

    Matt from the support staff at Caltop read my review here and shot me an email with some comments. He gave me permission to post his response here:

    On the map sync icons, you only have to sync a map once - after it's initially synced, it will automatically pick up updates from CalTopo. This was done because some maps took a significant amount of time and data to sync - think someone with a map of the PCT or CDT - and we didn't want to do that by default when someone signed into the app.

    A one-click option to download both map data and tiles is probably never going to happen. The app offers a wide variety of map sources, and downloading all of them, at high resolution, for each map would be very wasteful. It's difficult to know, generically across a variety of use cases, which layers and resolutions it makes sense to download automatically. Showing a map's objects or footprint on the tile download page so that you don't have to guess which squares you want is likely, however.

    On app download quotas, unlimited downloads aren't really on the table due to the cost of supporting them and the need to provide different pricing levels (since all layers are available by default, unlike e.g. Gaia), but the 30GB/yr provided with a pro account allows you to download a lot of data.

    Downloads are packaged according to the grid you see on the download page, and are named layer-{resolution}-lat-long-sublatlng.mbtiles. The exact location may vary slightly between Android versions, but they should be in something like Android\data\com.caltopo.android\files\tiles. If you need to free up space, I'd recommend moving them onto your computer so that you can restore them later, rather than needing to re-download them.

    After reading his response I reached back out for clarification on map downloads and asked:

    Currently downloading is really hard for finding what tiles a map I created
    stretches across. COuld we at least maybe have an option to display a map
    that we created on the download screen so we can at least see which tiles
    to download?

    In which he responded with:

    I'd expect the final version will make it easier to figure out what you're downloading, but I couldn't say for sure if that's showing all the map objects on the download page, just the map footprint, or simply having the download page open with the same map bounds that you currently have open.

    This last comment makes me happy, as long as I can easily download maps for certain trips that would be awesome!

    4 days later

    MikeJones Under the Location Tracking, you can turn on To features:

    Follow Me - Keeps map centered on your location while you move
    Record Me - Will record your data as you move

    I honestly just found these two features which make me happy because I was annoyed when I used the app last time while wheeling in my jeep in the desert. Next time the follow me feature will be great for having my map displayed while I drive.

    I was out in Anza Borrego at Fish Creek Wash the other weekend and finally got to test out these two features. The follow me was great it showed me exactly where I was while driving as expected.

    The record was great too, to leave a breadcrumb trail to follow out. Fish Creek Wash can get confusing, there are a lot of side canyons to explore!

    What's also really cool is you can add markers, so while driving I placed markers at potential campsites, and after a bit of driving we were easily able to get back to one we marked earlier which was great!

      3 months later

      Another update just went out to Caltopo subscription holders. I am excited about this update because it directly addresses my concern in my original post quoted below:

      MikeJones I also find the 5/GB per year model for paying customers confusing. I would like to download maps for one trip, clear them after the trip then download new maps for the next trip. The 5/GB per year model makes me think even if I cleared the downloads from my phone, that I will not be able to download more maps after I have downloaded 5/GB. This really concerns me since I am more or less guessing right now which grid squares to download for any particular trip.

      Here is the Caltopo Update:

      We have been hard at work making the CalTopo Android and iOS apps a better experience. We recognize many of you haven't had a chance to try out the app yet, but based on feedback from our current beta testers, it's clear that using a data quota for mobile downloads is confusing. With that in mind we are switching from a quota based approach to a layer based approach for offline downloads.
      ...

      The switch to a layer based approach only applies to offline use, while connected to the internet you will not see any changes at all to your subscription. This change will take place in approximately two weeks, from now until that time basic users can continue to download all layers. We will not be removing or restricting access to any data already on your device.

      Basic users will be able to download a nearly unlimited quantity of standard resolution topographic maps including MapBuilder Topo. Scanned 7.5’ Maps, FSTopo, and the MapBuilder Overlay. You will still be able to use overlays and tools such as the slope angle shading layer and shaded relief.

      Pro users will be able to download a nearly unlimited quantity of high resolution topographic maps as well as download a nearly unlimited amount of any aerial imagery layers including MapBuilder Hybrid and NAIP Aerial Imagery. You will also have access to all offline overlays and tools.

      Desktop users will notice we renamed what was formerly the "offline" account level to desktop to avoid any confusion between the app and desktop. Access to the offline application for Mac and PC remains unchanged. Your account will include all the benefits of the pro subscription above for the mobile app as well as up to 300GB of data downloads for the Mac and PC app.

        8 days later

        I used Caltopo Beta a lot this weekend for a Kayaking Camping trip. I have two observations of the beta:

        1. They fixed my issue with downloading map tiles for maps you created online on their website. Now when you click to download from viewing you map it opens the download page over the area where your currently open map is. This made it super simple to download my maps for my trip!

        2. The app is still beta and I am reporting this one to them tonight but I had issues loading maps while offline. While my phone was in airplane mode and I clicked on a map that I had downloaded I had a spinning icon for a very long time and my map didn't show up. I put my phone to sleep, and a few minutes later when I turned it on the map was ready to view and use, but it shouldn't have taken this long to load an offline map. I also had issues at one point where specific tiles on a downloaded map just didn't load:

        The tiles eventually loaded but took way to long for an offline downloaded map. Again the app is still in beta so I suspect these to be fixed, but wanted to continue to share my experience testing out the app as they push updates.

        10 months later

        I realized I have not updated this review in a while and the Caltopo app has come a very long way and is not my go-to hiking outdoors app for navigation.

        One of the issues I had with the app when it first came out was that it was not easy to download maps that I created on the Caltopo website:

        MikeJones What I was hoping for was for a download button for an individual map. I was hoping to have a one-click download to save the map and offline map tiles to my phone.

        Now you can!

        As an example lets check out a map I made on the Caltopo website for my recent trip to Lake Powell.

        When I go to download the map, I am now presented with an outline of my may in dotted purple and I can easily see what tiles I need to download:

        You can also easily delete tiles that you have downloaded but one at a time. I am hoping a future update will allow us to just delete all downloaded map tiles with one button press.

        There has been a whole lot of other minor tweaks here and there, but I am glad they fixed the tile downloads. It makes the app much easier to use!

        Overall the stability has greatly increased as well and I no longer had tiles getting stuck loading on maps I had previously downloaded.