If you're the kind of hiker who can spend hours just looking at maps, CalTopo will feel less like a tool and more like a playground. At its core, CalTopo lets you layer different map sources, tweak contour visibility, experiment with shading, and build a map that matches exactly how you see the terrain. The result isn't just functional - it's often beautiful, detailed, and deeply personal.
But CalTopo isn't only about aesthetics. Under the surface, it's a highly capable planning tool. Its route builder is precise and flexible, allowing you to sketch out anything from a quick local walk to a multi-day backcountry adventure with confidence. Whether you're analyzing elevation profiles or fine-tuning a route to avoid tricky terrain, it gives you a level of control that most hiking apps simply don't offer.
In practice, CalTopo shines across the full hiking workflow. Many users start on desktop, where the large screen makes it ideal for creating and customizing maps, layering data, and preparing routes. Those maps can then be printed for offline use or synced to your phone, where the mobile app becomes a reliable companion for navigation and track-following in the field.
This combination of flexibility and depth is exactly why CalTopo has earned a strong reputation beyond recreational hiking. It's widely used by professionals, including search and rescue (SAR) teams, who rely on its advanced mapping capabilities when precision and situational awareness really matter.
In short, CalTopo bridges the gap between map artistry and serious backcountry planning - and does both exceptionally well.
Despite it's name which suggests a viewer, GPX Viewer is a very capable mobile app for navigation, route following and track recording. It is reliable, provides a useful set of features and a nice set of maps that are visually pleasing and useful for hiking. It comes in two versions on Android, the basic free version and the paid Pro version. On iOS it comes only as a paid version.
In this article we will review the Android Pro version, since it comes with a couple of important features that are not available in the free one:
- offline maps
- track recording
The Android Pro version is available for a one-time payment of around 8.50 USD, which in our opinion is well worth the price for a very handy offline navigation app.
Funded by the US National Science Foundation, implemented at the University of Minnesota, the "Flyover Country" mobile app is a very useful, unique and free app for Android and iOS, which enriches the exploration experience using offline maps whether you're flying, travelling by car, or trekking through nature's wonders. It is voted one of the best science apps available today by Popular Mechanic.
AGPS-TrackerOm is an interesting Android application. It's main function is to follow preloaded tracks and record your tracks, and tries to do so reliably - ensuring that the GPS data is recorded at all times, even when the phone goes into stand-by mode. It can also provide enhanced accuracy of your current elevation, by using altitudes from NASA-generated Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) instead of the GPS-provided elevation which can be quite inaccurate.
AGPS-TrackerOm (previously called A-GPS Tracker++), differs from the lighter version, A-GPS Tracker in the following:
- AGPS-TrackerOm uses offline maps maintained by OpenStreetMap, which you need to preload. The "lighter" A-GPS Tracker uses Google maps which are not available offline.
- You can download Digital Elevation Models (DEM) which allow the app to display altitude contour lines and provide DEM altitude along with GPS altitude, the former being more accurate
