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I'll be heading down to H-town this weekend. I plan to teach my brother the ways of the hypermiler. I should pull over 40 easy, since the elevation change is a total of only 800ft one way. I change half that on my daily commute!!

Anybody ever used a topo map to see the terrain ahead? If so where did you find the resource?

I can just see the look on my wife's face when I ask her to call out the hills from the passenger's seat. Especially with no A/C... :p

Use toporoute.com

Anybody ever used a topo map to see the terrain ahead? If so where did you find the resource?


Either Topo mode in a GPS or a US Geological Survey topo map from USGS.gov.

You can go to TNRIS and download USGS quads (http://www.tnris.state.tx.us/datadownload/download.jsp).
Click on the county you want, then the quadrangle. You want the 24K DRG - collared.
These are your standard 7-1/2 minute USGS quads - 20-foot contours; scale is 1"=2000'. TIFF files, archived.
You'll need to be able to print them at 22"x34" though.
good luck
-jon

EDIT: TNRIS = Texas Natural Resources Information System