Free Maps for Garmin units

I haven't had much time for caching the past week. Work has me hopping right now. It will slow back down in a week or two - then they'll be more time for caching again.

I have spent some time looking at maps for my Garmin units that I don't have maps for. I found some excellent maps (most are works in progress).

First Topo Maps from http://www.miscjunk.org/mj/mp_main.html.
They cover Wyoming, Utah, Montana, and Colorado and they are great! I took an older eTrex Legend (old blue - with only 8meg for maps) and loaded some of the Wyoming maps. I choose Wyoming because I grew up there and thought I would know if the maps were accurate or not. Well, the they are exceptional! The contours are excellent, plus you get street maps for cities and towns!! Next time we go out there I'll definitely load the older GPS's with these maps. The kids will love it compared to not having any maps at all.

They also have some off road maps for Minnesota. You Minnesotans might want to check them out.

My second great find was http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/.
Although the map choices are sparse, they have "How To's" to teach you how to create your own maps. I thought this was pretty good, and if I find the time, I might just try it myself.

Next it was off to http://openstreetmap.org/.
A very interesting community based project. These guy's are mapping the world one saved track at a time. Take a look at your area and I bet you'll be impressed. What I found most useful about this site was the European maps that can be generated. If you're planning a trip over seas, take a look here and learn how to make your maps before you go.

Lastly, follow this topic in the GroundSpeak Forums http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=189762.
These are the best street maps I could find (for free!!). ibycus is doing an outstanding job creating a complete USA map set. If you haven't seen this yet, it's a "must see." The only issue that I could find is the speed of the GPS. I tried loading a set of maps on the old eTrex Legend. They load just fine. However, the blue eTrex Legend just isn't powerful enough to draw the maps quick enough. It took forever because of all of the detail ibycus is providing. However, on the newer color eTrex line it worked great.

So, if you're looking for maps and don't want to pay a bundle, the resources above are a great start. And if you can't find what you like, you can always make your own and contribute them to the cause.