Interactive Maps of North America


Northwest Travel Planning Interactive Maps

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Mapblast
Mapquest
Maps On Us
Maptech
MSN Expedia
TopoZone
Atlases

There are a number of services on the web that provide free interactive maps. These services produce maps based on your search. You can do such things as: search for an address or place, such as a landmark; "zoom" out to see your destination in the context of the North American continent; or get driving directions between destinations. You can then print out your results. They are a useful aid for travel planning, especially where they offer street maps.

Index to original maps on Go Northwest! Travel Planning Border Crossings Currency Driving Tours Free Brochures Time & Time Zones Transportation Travel In Canada Travel In USA Weather About the Northwest Attractions Cities & Towns Maps National Parks Trails Volcanoes What is the Northwest? Northwest Links Accommodations Activities Attractions Food & Beverage Visitor Information A Provocative Description of the Pacific Northwest Shopping at Go Northwest!	Map Service	Mapblast!
	Maps		Directions / Route Planners
	Coverage	Canada, USA and beyond.	Coverage	USA only. Cannot get directions that will take you across the border.
	Levels of Detail	Both countries: ranges from the north American continent to street level. Street names and feature such as parks identified. No detail for areas such as national parks.	Destination Types	Street addresses, towns, landmarks, national parks and regions.
	Search	US: searchable by street name and town name. Canada: searchable by town name only. Can't search for place names such as Mount Rainier.	Route Types	Choose fastest or shortest routes, and you can ask it either to avoid or favor major highways.
	Navigation	Zoom: choice of ten levels. Pan by using compass points. Clicking on map: recenters.	Results	Written driving directions, step-by-step maps, with a map showing origin and destination points.
	Results	Buttons for emailing, printing, and linking to map results.	Other Features	Allows intermediate destination.
	Other Features	MapBlast! also provides lodging information, reservation capabilities, traffic reports and local points of interest.

Pacific Northwest Road Atlas and Drivers Guide: Oregon, Washington, Southwestern British Columbia and Western Idaho: 2000 Edition July 1999, Thomas Brothers Maps, Paperback, 384 pages Order now... Northwest Washington and Southwest British Columbia Recreation and Relief Map by GM Johnson January 1994, 1 page Order now... We appreciate your orders. They help keep Go Northwest! online.	Map Service	Mapquest
	Maps		Directions / Route Planners
	Coverage	Canada, USA and beyond.	Coverage	Canada and USA. Can get directions that will take you across the border.
	Levels of Detail	USA: ranges from the north American continent to street level. Street names and feature such as parks identified. Canada: not always to street level.	Destination Types	USA: street addresses and towns. Canada: towns.
	Search	US: searchable by street name and town name. Canada: searchable by town name only.	Route Types
	Navigation	Zoom: four of ten available zoom levels are identified as national, region, city and street. Pan by using compass points. Clicking on map: recenters.	Results	Written driving directions, turn-by-turn maps, with a map showing origin and destination points.
	Results	Buttons to save in "mymapquest", print, email, download or link to results.	Other Features	Allows intermediate destination.
	Other Features	Has nice looking maps for scenic drives in Oregon and Washington.

Map Service	Maps On Us
Maps		Directions / Route Planners
Coverage	USA only.	Coverage	USA only.
Levels of Detail	Ranges from the north American continent to street level. Street names and feature such as parks identified. No detail for areas such as national parks.	Destination Types	Both long distance (town to town) and local (address to address) directions.
Search	Can't search for place names such as Mount Rainier.	Route Types	Choose fastest or shortest routes, and you can ask it either to avoid or favor major highways.
Navigation	Zoom: four of seventeen zoom levels are available at any one time. Pan: a choice to pan across the map by a full or half screen. Clicking on the map allows you to pan and zoom in one level at the same time.	Results	Written turn-by-turn directions with detailed maps.
Results	Buttons for emailing and linking to map results.	Other Features	Allows intermediate destination.
Other Features	Colors are nice and clear.

Map Service	Maptech
Maps		Directions / Route Planners
Coverage	USA only.	Not available
Levels of Detail	Terrific level of detail, such as you would expect on a topographical map. Named features include towns, mountains, waterways, and waterfalls.	Comments This interactive map service is provided as a way to entice users to purchase the company's other digital and paper products. They provide two types of free interactive maps: topographical maps and nautical charts.
Search	Searchable by city name and state only. Unfortunately no search on other features such as Mount Rainier, so choose a nearby town.
Navigation	Zoom: two levels (or scales) available Pan: by using compass points or clicking on map.
Results	Buttons to bookmark, print, or email results.

Map Service	MSN Expedia Maps
Maps		Directions / Route Planners
Coverage	Canada, USA and beyond.	Coverage	Canada and USA. Can get directions that will take you across the border.
Levels of Detail	USA: ranges from the north American continent to street level. Street names and feature such as parks identified. Canada: town and highway level, and sometimes to street level as for Vancouver. A fair level of detail for areas such as national parks.	Destination Types	USA: street addresses, towns and place names. Canada: towns and place names.
Search	US: searchable by street name and town name. Canada: searchable by town name only. Can search for place names such as Mount Rainier.	Route Types	Choose fastest or shortest routes, and you can ask it either to avoid or favor major highways.
Navigation	Zoom: choice of eleven levels. Pan by using compass points. Clicking on map: recenters.	Results	Written driving directions, turn-by-turn maps, with a navigable map showing origin and destination points.
Results	Buttons to save in "my routes and maps", print, email or link to results. Search results include an overview map which puts the main map into context.	Other Features
Other Features	Colors are quieter than other map services.

Map Service	TopoZone
Maps		Directions / Route Planners
Coverage	USA only.	Not available
Levels of Detail	Terrific level of detail, such as you would expect on a topographical map. Named features include towns, mountains, glaciers, waterways, and waterfalls.	Comments This interactive map service is provided by Maps a la carte using USG data. They provide free interactive topographical maps. It seems to be an easy site to use.
Search	Searchable by city name and other places such as "Mount Baker".
Navigation	Zoom: four levels (or scales) available Pan: by using arrows or clicking on map.
Results	They are happy for you to print, or email results, but you will need to use your browser menus to do so.

Other interactive atlases are:

National Atlas of Canada
Goegraphical, political and social data is contained in the map layers. Provided by the Department of Natural Resources Canada and developed by the GeoAccess Division.

National Atlas of the United States of America
Create maps of the country's natural and socio-cultural landscapes. From the U.S. Geological Survey and its partners. Can locate cities, but does not have street maps.

TerraServer
This service uses a combination of sources to create images of places of your choosing. Depending on where the Terraserver has information you can retrieve: colored relief maps, USGS digitized topographical maps (known as digital raster graphics, in color), USGS ortho photos (black and white georectified digitized aerial photographs, known as digital orthophotoquads), SPIN-2 web maps (black and white "overhead imagery", that is satellite images and aerial photos). Covers the U.S. only.

US Census Bureau TIGER Mapping service
Does have street maps.

Go Northwest! tips for purchasing air tickets online.