In Canada, anyone in backcountry, geosciences, or the military uses Canada Topographic Maps. Geologists use these exact maps to find oil, gas and minerals. The military uses these exact maps when strategizing defence (or offence in the case of enemies) when in war games. And finally for us adventurers, explorers and back-country enthusiasts, we study these maps extensively before beginning any serious journey. Most hiking books and outdoor adventure articles will reference Canada Topographic Maps when describing a route.
There is no getting around it. You need to know how to use Canada Topographic Maps and understand how to find mapid's.
People are often overwhelmed with Canada Topographic Maps. Longitude and latitude are usually unkown and the maps you want to use are so numerous and detailed, you cannot find anything. But don't give up. These maps are invaluable to finding your way in Canada.
ALL OF CANADA IS COVERED BY THESE MAPS. THEY ARE HUGE!!!! Each map is about 3 feet by 4 feet in size (covers a medium sized table) so it is hard to see places on your little screen. And there are so many maps that finding the right one is difficult!
74 maps 1:1,000,000 covering all Canada. 913 maps 1:250,0000 covering all Canada. 12,133 maps 1:50,000 covering all Canada.
Each map is about 35 MB in size. Downloading can be slow.
These maps are rarely used. They look quaint and are out-of-date. They are useful for looking around Canada, as it used to be, for interesting areas to explore. The mapid is 4 alphanumeric characters (2 alpha followed by 2 numeric) of the form aa99
The elegant way to find a mapid is to use Google Earth overlayed with the Natural Resources Canada index (.kml) file.
For the 1:1,000,000 map index, click here.When asked, be sure to open the .kml file with Google Earth.
If you do not have Google Earth, you can use Google Maps as an alternative by Clicking Here.
Once you have the map name, you need to translate it to the 4 character mapid by Clicking Here. Enter the 4 character mapid to fetch the map.
The 1:250,000 and 1:50,000 maps are the crux of Canada Topographic Maps. Again, the elegant way to find mapid's is to use Google Earth.
For the 1:250,000 map index, click here.When asked, open the .kml file with Google Earth. Alternatively, the .kml file can be downloaded and imported into either Google Earth or Google maps manually. Search the web "how to import a kml into google maps or google earth" for instructions.
To understand how the mapid's are organized for 1:50,000 and 1:250,000, try to look up the mapid's 031e (1:250,000) and 031e01 (1:50,000) in the mapindex of Ontario (shown on this website just under HELP!!).
Open the Ontario mapindex, It shows the province of Ontario full of little squares. Look at number 42 in the middle of the map You can see 42 is in the middle of a huge-square containing 16 big-squares and 256 micro-squares. Each big-square represents a 1:250,000 map and each micro-square represents a 1:50,000 map.
If you zoom in closer, you can see each big-square contains a letter A,B,C,...N,O,P labelling the big-squares as follows: (I use small letters instead of capitals)
m n o p l k j i e f g h d c b a Each micro-square contains a number 1,2,...15,16 labelling the micro-squares as follows: 13 14 15 16 12 11 10 9 5 6 7 8 4 3 2 1 The big-squares are 1:250000 maps. The format is 3 digits + 1 alpha character...eg 031e The micro-squares are 1:50,000 maps. The format is 3 digits + 1 alpha character + 2 digits... eg 031e01
Open the Ontario mapindex, and zoom into the square containing 31. Look for the letter "e". It is just right of Georgian Bay and covers most of Algonquin Provincial Park.
Zoom in further and you will see the 16 micro-squares organized as per above These are organized as shown above
The map 031e01 is at the bottom right of the big-square containing the letter E. It is a 1:50,000 map. The map 031e is the 16 micro-squares.
The numbered-areas start at the Southeast corner of Canada (St John's Newfoundland) at 001 and go north 002,003,004... Going west, the numbered-areas increase by a factor of 10 as in 002,012,022,032. Ottawa is 031, Toronto is 30, Sault St Marie is 42, Thunder Bay is 52, Winnipeg is 62, Regina is 72, Calgary is 82, Vancouver is 92. The Northwest Territories north edge is 29,39,49...99. The Yukon Alaska border is 115,116,117. Near the pole, the numbering system is totally different.
For mapid, you have to enter the full 3 digits. Hence 031e01 will be found but 31e01 or 31e1 will not be found. Also, you must have the scale and mapid format matching or it will not be found. Hence 1:250,000 scale will not find 031e01 but will find 031e.
All Canada Topographic Maps are downloaded from Natural Resources Canada.
The websites for map downloads: ftp://ftp.maps.canada.ca/pub/nrcan_rncan/raster/topographic/1m_tif/ ftp://ftp.maps.canada.ca/pub/nrcan_rncan/raster/topographic/250k/ ftp://ftp.maps.canada.ca/pub/nrcan_rncan/raster/topographic/50k/ for 1:1,000,000 maps, 1:250,000 maps and 1:50,000 maps respectively. The websites for indexes (.kml files) are: ftp://ftp.maps.canada.ca/pub/nrcan_rncan/raster/topographic/index/canmatrix_index_1m.kml ftp://ftp.maps.canada.ca/pub/nrcan_rncan/raster/topographic/index/canmatrix_index_250k.kml ftp://ftp.maps.canada.ca/pub/nrcan_rncan/raster/topographic/index/canmatrix_index_50k.kml