TopoActive maps on the 66i missing many of the trails vs Topo US maps.

Former Member
Former Member

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I just upgraded from an Oregon 600t to the 66i and found virtually no trails showing on a backpacking trip through the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness in eastern WA state. I remembered using my Oregon in that area and always found trails showing. After the trip, I double-checked this as well as many of the trails in eastern WA and north ID and found many very well-traveled trails that are all on the Oregon are nowhere to be found on the 66i! I understand that the Oregon has the Topo US map vs Topo Active on the 66i, but I would think that buying the top of the line handheld, Topo Active would be at least have equally as many trails represented. Has anyone found this to be the case or is there some feature that I'm missing to show these trails? If it is the case (which is pretty reprehensible), is there a way to add the Topo US maps?

  • It's the same with the Australian / New Zealand topo active map.  Yes, it's disappointing however not surprising as this is the same company who still fits USB1.1 on the cheaper models.  Get excellent free maps for most of the world, including topo, here: Routable Maps for Garmin

  • Not sure what's on the Oregon. My understanding is that the TopoActive maps are essentially OSM with some additional Garmin "special sauce". Not sure what the special sauce entails, but I think it has to do with sharing activities from the Garmin Connect universe.

    You can always purchase the Garmin 1:24000 topos, but they are regional and pricey. And they end up locked to the unit on which you first install them.

    Another reliable source of decent free topos for the US is gpsfiledepot.com. However, the quality varies depending on the author, so YMMV. If you hunt around, you can probably find a source for the OSM topos (as opposed to the street maps with some trails, which I believe are the basis for the TopoActive maps). I don't know anything about their trail coverage, however.