Budgeting and Planning Software

Can you recommend some trip planning software for off-road 4x4 Jeeping?

My brother loves driving his Jeep Wrangler on off-road trails. I would like to get him some trip planning software, for Christmas. It would not need to be GPS-compatible, but he does have a Garmin, in case that is relevant. He lives in Virginia and mostly goes Jeeping in Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. He has excellent computer skills, so software complexity would not be a problem. I have seen "TOPO" map software, but don't know if that would be the best choice. I would appreciate advice from any of you Jeepers, out there. :-) Thank you!

Public Comments

1. i go off roading mostly in Tennessee and Kentucky. I have found most computer mapping software totally useless for off road trails. The TOPO maps do a good job of showing the terrain and are helpful in knowing how steep and area is, however, they usually don't show the trails very well. I have had the best luck just getting paper maps form the local parks where I run. If you know which parks he visits, check the forums for those parks and see if anyone has made a custom map of the park. Mike http://www.mikestrawbridge.com
2. As others have said, there really is no good software out there. Most of the jeep trail sites have PDF versions of the trails and you can print these out. On my last visit to the North Georgia Mountains, i had my GPS next to my computer and physically looked up the areas and had to manually select them from general maps on the GPS. It got me to where i was going, but once there had to do all of my own navigations.