Best Montana Atlas

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llholmes1948
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Best Montana Atlas

Post by llholmes1948 »

For general use in travelling around Montana, do people prefer the Benchmark Montana Road and Recreation Atlas or the Garmin Delorme Montana Atlas?

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Lyman
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Re: Best Montana Atlas

Post by PeteE »

llholmes1948 wrote:For general use in travelling around Montana, do people prefer the Benchmark Montana Road and Recreation Atlas or the Garmin Delorme Montana Atlas?

Thanks,
Lyman
Lyman, I haven't used the Benchmark product which looks fairly new, 3 years?
I've used the Garmin Delorme Atlas & Gazetteer maps forever(VA, WVA, NC versions) and found them pretty good.

I haven't bought a new edition of the Montana DeLorme since 2008 when I was doing a lot of back country "touring" and camping with former g/f who couldn't hike much.
You still like "paper" stuff with all the "apps" out there?
j/k :D I like paper too.

pete :wink:







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Re: Best Montana Atlas

Post by Ear Mountain »

All the digital stuff is very helpful but when planning nothing beats a paper map IMHO. My wife and I have been camping and hiking in the Four Corners area the last few years. The Benchmark Atlases of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona have been excellent. I haven't purchased Montana yet but if it compares the the other states I have it should be very good.

One bit of advice though. The Benchmark maps are regularly updated. If you purchase them from any source other than Benchmark make sure you are buying the most recent edition.
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Re: Best Montana Atlas

Post by llholmes1948 »

Pete and Ralph,

Thanks very much for your advice on this. I am not quite in the digital age and much prefer a paper atlas. I wished I had checked these atlases out when I was last in Montana in 2014 and compared them first hand.

I have the Delorme atlas for Maine (in fact I think I own four of them - I keep picking them up if I see them at garage sales) and use them frequently. I think I have a Delorme New Hampshire atlas but have not used it much. I also have an older Benchmark Atlas for New Mexico.

I contacted two friends in Montana about this in addition to posting this question on the Chat. It turns out one uses the Delorme Montana atlas and likes it and the other uses the Benchmark atlas and prefers that. I weighed their comments and decided to order the Benchmark atlas and it arrived a couple weeks ago. It looks great and I am very pleased with it. I am looking forward to road-testing it on my next visit.

When my son and I looked at the Benchmark atlas we were puzzled by one thing. In many locations around the Great Falls area, there were locations marked "missle silo" which I assume are connected to the air force base in Great Falls. I assume that these locations marked "missle silo" are discontinued missle silos. I assume that missle silos that are still active would not be shown in the atlas for security reasons. Am I correct or not?

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Re: Best Montana Atlas

Post by Ear Mountain »

There are some silos that are inactive. Maybe there are also some that have been decommissioned. I don't know for sure. One inactive silo that I think I know about correctly is used by the USAF for training purposes. By and large though, most of the silos maintained by Malstrom Air Force Base are active and contain ready to fly missiles on command.

Silos are fairly easy to identify when driving around Montana. There a signs on highways pointing to them and the perimeter fence and poles with detectors are dead giveaways.
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Re: Best Montana Atlas

Post by llholmes1948 »

Ralph,

Thanks for that information. There are quite a few missile silos shown in the Benchmark Atlas. Although I assumed that their location was common knowledge in the local area but I was surprised to see them in an atlas.

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Re: Best Montana Atlas

Post by PeteE »

I don't have a current road atlas for MT.
I think I'll try the Benchmark this time.

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Re: Best Montana Atlas

Post by Ear Mountain »

llholmes1948 wrote:Ralph,

Thanks for that information. There are quite a few missile silos shown in the Benchmark Atlas. Although I assumed that their location was common knowledge in the local area but I was surprised to see them in an atlas.

Lyman
The silos are clearly visible on Google Earth as well.
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