HOW TO READ A MAP

Map reading is actually only half the challenge of wilderness navigation, the other half being able to read a compass with efficiency. This may sound much more challenging than it really is, but it's really very simple, truly. If you'd like to learn everything there is to know about compasses and how to read them, whenever you'd like to, just hop on over to my other site on How to Use a Compass.

In the mean time, let's focus on the development of our map reading skills and learn how to recognize and understand certain symbols and the methodology on how they are to be translated - but really, have no fear. It isn't nearly as difficult as it may sound... in fact, it'll all be quite fun, so let's continue!

In learning how to read a map, you'll find that there's beauteous efficiency in it's exquisite simplicity. Wow, that was a mouthful! ^_^

First off, let's go over the main simple things that most maps have in common;

*~ A map displays the four main cardinal points; North, East, South and West.

*~ Maps generally have North at the top, South at the bottom, and East and West to the right and left, respectively.

*~ Maps have a scale, which is used to tell distances - for example, an inch can represent 10 miles... using this knowledge, we can judge the distance between two points in real life.

*~ On a map, you will find many map symbols which represent real-life objects, such as trails, railroad tracks, buildings, streets, rivers and waterways, mountains, campsites and so on.

*~ Maps have what is called a legend, which is a descriptive list of the symbols used on the map and what they all represent and mean.

*~ A map can use different colours to portray different things. Green and blue are generally forests and bodies of water respectively, and so on.

*~ A huge grid of vertical and horizontal imaginary lines cover our globe, called longitude and latitude lines, which are used to identify any location on Earth.

As long as you understand these simple fundamental things, you can pretty much read any map you can get your hands on quite easily. There, that wasn't so difficult now, was it? Okay, on to more specific things, and then we can begin to read maps like a pro!

Topographical maps are those which show a more detailed image of what the actual surrounding land depicted really looks like. Here in this picture on the right, we can see roundish, loopy lines all over the place. What the heck are these, anyways?

These lines show us hills, mountains, cliffs and other features of the terrain, and give us an idea of their elevation. The smaller central roundish shapes are the peaks, and the concentric shapes round about them represent different degrees of depth from the tops of these hills and mountains down to the base levels, the lower spots of the surrounding land.

Basically, as you walk on the land towards the smaller central roundish enclosures on the map, you are ascending, and as you walk towards the outer concentric roundish shapes, you are descending.

Often, the elevations of these areas can be clearly marked with numbers, denoting how many feet above or below sea level they happen to be. Using this information, we can tell how high the hilly features of the land are, as well as where the low spots between these land features are located.

By the way, we can also see some other things in the picture here... certain types of roads, buildings and so forth. Lines of different types and varieties can mean many types of roadways, highways, trails, train tracks and more, as well as there being many symbols for buildings and other structures. For a look at a free, downloadable PDF document of all of the map symbols and their meanings, used by the USGS, please click here ----> MAP SYMBOLS.

In truth, you can use any scale imaginable when you set out to create a map, but mainly just a few are used by most map publishing organizations today. These most used scales are;

*~ 1:24,000 - This is the most common scale, used by the USGS for mapping the entire United States in topographical maps. 1 inch on such a map equals 2,000 feet (or 24,000 inches, which is the very same thing). This scale is used on 29"x22" maps, more than 54,000 of them, for the entire United States. These are also known as 7.5 minute maps because each map covers 7.5 minutes of latitude by 7.5 minutes of longitude on a flat paper map.

*~ 1:63,360 - on these, 1 inch would then equal 1 mile

*~ 1:50,000

*~ 1:250,000

*~ 1:1,000,000

The smaller the number after the colon (" : ") is, the more detailed the map will be. For an easy hypothetical example, a map with a scale of 1:10 would be ten times larger and more detailed than a 1:100 scale map, but less area would be depicted on the same sized paper map. The 1:10 map would in effect be as though a "zoomed in" version of the 1:100 scale map.

The picture at the above right, right here, shows an example map scale. From this we can see that 1/4" = 1 mile. We can photocopy such maps and make the copies larger or smaller, but an inch would no longer mean the same thing. However, as long as the scale is there, we can still have a frame of reference to go by. Pretty snazzy, eh?

Okay, so what's next? For the next step in learning about navigation, being certain that you've also learned How to Use a Compass, please visit my lens page on Using a Map and Compass together in order to attain a deeper understanding of it all.

This lens was created 3/12/09 at 8:22 p.m. Pacific Time, Japan - it is a work in progress, as I make little "tweaks" here and there to improve spelling, make things clearer, and add anything I find relevant to this lesson. Please "bookmark" (or "favourite") this page for future reference to see progress in its contents as time goes by, by holding down your keyboard's "ctrl" button and then pressing "d".