A 3D hunting map: tilt and turn the ground
The same map and the same aerial photo, laid over the real shape of the ground. Tilt it, turn it, and see how a basin, a bench or a ridge actually sits before you climb to it.
What it shows
- The map you were looking at, in 3D. Press 3D and the topo map or the aerial photo is draped over the land.
- View from here. Tap a spot and look out from it, to see what ground you could watch from there.
- Your own pins and routes, standing on the ground they mark.
What it is good for
- Seeing what a spot looks over. A flat map does not show that a knob 200 feet below a ridge sees the whole basin, or that the ridge top sees none of it.
- Seeing the walk. Whether the easy way round a head wall is left or right is plain in 3D and hard to read from contour lines.
- Learning to read contours. Go back and forth between the flat map and 3D until the lines start to look like ground.
What it is not
The shape is the U.S. Geological Survey's elevation survey of the bare ground. Trees are not in it, so a view the map shows as open can be thick timber when you get there. Check the aerial photo for the tree cover, and trust your own eyes over both.
The map shows the ground. A plan tells you where to go.
The map is free. A FilledTag hunt plan is the paid part: for your tag and where you drive from, one exact plan with a legal place to park, a camp, morning and evening spots and the walk between them, checked against land records.