Middle Earth Ranger Forum

I thought about apending these to my original post, but they're a sufficient improvement that I decided to post them on their own. I've drafted two new maps of my favorite stomping grounds in the Sierra Nevada: Yosemite and the John Muir Trail.





They're both still fairly rough, needing proper labeling, legends and scales. The horizontal scale is different from the vertical scale due to foreshortening, which makes it a bit difficult.

I like this format better than the last one--the previous map used a perspective projection, which caused detail to diminish into the distance. These maps use isometric projection to simulate "2.5D" instead of 3D. They appear to be 3 dimensional, but don't diminish with distance.

I'm not quite satisfied with them. They're not quite adequate for anything but decoration as yet. I'd like to get them to the point where they'd work for rudimentary navigation, but the JMT at least is of such monumental scale that it would be hard to do so without getting cluttered. Even relevant data like the locations of lakes and streams is very hard to put in--there are a TON of lakes in the High Sierra.

Anyway, I'll update this thread when I finish better drafts.

These are BRILLIANT! I love the style you chose for them! I've been wanting to try my hand at making some for the Colorado Front Range, but I'm afraid my skills as a cartographer are limited to pure fantasy.

Fun seeing these familiar place-names and labels on a map like that. Very cool.

Manveruon wrote:These are BRILLIANT! I love the style you chose for them! I've been wanting to try my hand at making some for the Colorado Front Range, but I'm afraid my skills as a cartographer are limited to pure fantasy.

I've been considering making up a bunch of these and selling prints. The Front Range as a whole is pretty massive, but Rocky Mountain NP would be an ideal candidate.

Are these hand-made in a kind of "Paint" program, or are you using some kind of map software?

Straelbora wrote:Are these hand-made in a kind of "Paint" program, or are you using some kind of map software?

I start with USGS digital elevation models, align them in a GIS program and standardize the raster values. Then I plug those into a program which renders the terrain in an isometric projection. Then I use other shapefiles found around the internet and georeference them to my DEM to add in terrain features like trails, water features and borders. Once all that's done, I export it as a few enormous image files (bare terrain and annotated), stack them together in an image editor and trace over everything to make it look hand-drawn. I overlay the hand-drawn line-art onto some parchment-y stock image and do a color-wash from the original terrain model to get the elevation strata (grass, dirt, rock, snow).

So, both; A handful of mapping programs followed by an image editor.

Oh, those are fun!

... the terrain indicators look true and detailed enough they're still useful for navigation, at least on a coarse / "reminder" basis - have you found that to be true?

Elleth wrote:the terrain indicators look true and detailed enough they're still useful for navigation, at least on a coarse / "reminder" basis - have you found that to be true?

I haven't taken these out into the field yet, but I have reservations about relying on the terrain indicators. For one thing, while everything is "accurate" if you don't count the height exaggeration and foreshortening on the vertical axis, it's only accurate with a bird's eye view from one specific direction. So if you were moving southbound on the JMT, for example (the way most people do it), You'd be seeing the 'backs' of everything, and I'm guessing your reaction would be something like this:



That said, the new draft of Yosemite I'm working on should have water features and less slapdash trails, which would give you a much better way of reckoning your location. In terms of usefulness, I suspect that would put it just above a 'subway' type map, in which landmarks and intersections are the most relevant geographic features.

Still not a patch on a modern topo map, but then again my tinderbox can't really compete with my butane torch, either; that's not really the point.

SierraStrider wrote:

Straelbora wrote:Are these hand-made in a kind of "Paint" program, or are you using some kind of map software?

I start with USGS digital elevation models, align them in a GIS program and standardize the raster values. Then I plug those into a program which renders the terrain in an isometric projection. Then I use other shapefiles found around the internet and georeference them to my DEM to add in terrain features like trails, water features and borders. Once all that's done, I export it as a few enormous image files (bare terrain and annotated), stack them together in an image editor and trace over everything to make it look hand-drawn. I overlay the hand-drawn line-art onto some parchment-y stock image and do a color-wash from the original terrain model to get the elevation strata (grass, dirt, rock, snow).

So, both; A handful of mapping programs followed by an image editor.

Whew! I hadda ask.

SierraStrider wrote:

Straelbora wrote:Are these hand-made in a kind of "Paint" program, or are you using some kind of map software?

I start with USGS digital elevation models, align them in a GIS program and standardize the raster values. Then I plug those into a program which renders the terrain in an isometric projection. Then I use other shapefiles found around the internet and georeference them to my DEM to add in terrain features like trails, water features and borders. Once all that's done, I export it as a few enormous image files (bare terrain and annotated), stack them together in an image editor and trace over everything to make it look hand-drawn. I overlay the hand-drawn line-art onto some parchment-y stock image and do a color-wash from the original terrain model to get the elevation strata (grass, dirt, rock, snow).

So, both; A handful of mapping programs followed by an image editor.

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HOLY CRAP. :O

Seriously though, that's an insane amount of work to put into something like this! Hat's off to you, for sure! WOW.

As for Rocky Mountain National Park, if it were me doing this, I would personally avoid mapping that area much in this style, because they have extremely restrictive weapons rules in the park itself, and therefore I very much doubt the Rangers around these parts will ever be very active within its borders. Some of the wilderness areas and national forests along the front range could be great candidates though. And there's also a lovely little trail network in the Red Feather Lakes area near Ft. Collins that I've been wanting to see about mapping for a while now for the purposes of setting up a sort of "quest" there.

One of my rangers has relatives in Sonora; maybe we'll get out there after the snows melt.

Manveruon wrote:As for Rocky Mountain National Park, if it were me doing this, I would personally avoid mapping that area much in this style, because they have extremely restrictive weapons rules in the park itself, and therefore I very much doubt the Rangers around these parts will ever be very active within its borders.

Hear, hear. They won't even allow leashed dogs in the park.

Greg wrote:

Manveruon wrote:As for Rocky Mountain National Park, if it were me doing this, I would personally avoid mapping that area much in this style, because they have extremely restrictive weapons rules in the park itself, and therefore I very much doubt the Rangers around these parts will ever be very active within its borders.

Hear, hear. They won't even allow leashed dogs in the park.

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that ludicrous sanction. RMNP is has some unbelievably beautiful areas, but unfortunately it is rather over-legislated for Dunedain purposes, in my opinion.

...Also, I have to admit that I literally laughed out loud at this while sitting at my work desk.

SierraStrider wrote:

you to?