If you're big on outdoor activities -- hiking, trail running, or cycling -- you know the familiar problem: Spotty GPS and data signals can mean a messy time trying to find your way out of the woods. Literally.
While there are still plenty of printed guide options, having online access to maps, trails, and essential details about where you are is incredibly convenient and important, especially if you're just heading out for a short day trip or a hike in relative civilization as opposed to roughing it in the deepest reaches of your local mountain range.
Living in Northeast Ohio, I often choose to escape the urban environment in favor of the small nature sanctuaries in the Cleveland Metroparks system and down the road in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I found myself getting frustrated on hikes that there was either no signal allow me to use Google Maps or when there was one using it would almost drain battery.
Enter ViewRanger, a map and trail app that has some great bells and whistles -- including maps that are available offline. If you can learn to navigate it and are willing to shell out a few bucks, it could make it a great addition to your outdoor adventures.
The layout
Upon opening ViewRanger, you're offered a split-screen with a searchable map on top and a results list on bottom, which shows trails and routes shared by others. In between, you'll find some useful filters to help you narrow down your search: activity type, distance, difficulty, and so on.
A menu bar across the top allows the user to cycle through other views, such as a full-screen map option, the app's social feed, a search option, and preferences. On the full-screen map tab, you'll find a map layers icon that takes you to all the options the app has to offer which are, indeed, extensive. Well, as long as you go for the top-tier premium subscription, which will cost you $19.99 per year.
While the map and shared routes feature are easily navigable, accessing some of the other options, like the augmented reality Skyline tool or the 3D flyover, are a bit more difficult. With no tutorial, you're left to poke around and uncover things like how to navigate between map options or find features like the Skyline tool, which I got to by clicking a mysterious, unlabeled icon from a map screen.
It took a good 15 minutes before I found the 3D flyover feature and that was purely by accident. And I had no idea that there was a GPS power-saving feature until I got deep in to the "Knowledge Books" nestled away in the Help section.
If you want any tutorials, you'll have to look at the app's website. For the most part, it's not a steep learning curve but having access to these tutorials via the app would be a huge help.
In any case, it's definitely best to familiarize yourself with the app's functionality before you trek out into the woods. But once you get past that hurdle, ViewRanger has a lot of potential, depending on your circumstances.
Maps and routes feature
One of the first things you'll notice is the presence of shared routes and trails created by other users and organizations. They're available for everyone on the app to follow and enjoy, and they include great information like distance, waypoints, and even elevation guides.
It's a great idea -- but the available selection varies depending on where you live. For instance, below you'll find shared trails for the Denver area (left) and the Cleveland area (right).
The lack of shared options in certain places wouldn't be quite as troubling if there was a better way to highlight existing trails that haven't been shared by other users. I know of dozens of official trails within parks near me but with one or two exceptions, none were highlighted in the app, and I had to search around to find them. In these situations, I'm better off using the separate Cleveland Metroparks app that highlights both parks and their trails.
There's also a "Plot a route" feature, which uses map tools to allow you make your own custom hiking or running route anywhere on the map. But getting that to follow a pre-existing trail within the app itself is pretty time-consuming, given how the feature works and twisty nature of so many trails. It's a bit easier to use if you login to the ViewRanger site on the web, but that takes away the ease of using it as, well, a mobile app.
That said, the app does have a robust library of maps available for viewing and downloading. An extensive array of map options are available to choose from, particularly if you opt to pay for one of the subscription options.
Among the choices are topographic, satellite, transportation, and ground cover, all available for download and offline use which is a huge selling point. The sets also include maps from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and U.S. topographical maps created by the USGS's National Geospatial Program.
After all, when you're out in the wilderness, your phone's GPS can make live map readings impossible. You'll need something to get your bearings, and with ViewRanger's combination of maps you can get a better idea of where you actually are regardless of your connection.
Extras
The other features within the app are all what you make of them. The social feed is a nice option if you're an active user and have lots of friends who are doing the same kinds of things. You can share routes you create and recorded "tracks" (or hikes/walks) you take and follow others and see their shared routes. There's also a Buddy Beacon location feature that can help friends find you out on the trail.
Another feature is the aforementioned Skyline, which uses AR to call out all of the geographical features around you, including mountain peaks, towns, and geological features including distance. For me, though, there aren't many peaks and if you know where Lake Erie is, you're pretty much set. Still, it'd be a nice thing to have if you're scanning across the Rockies but, like the user-shared route options, its utility really depends on the environment around you. I checked Skyline only once just to see how it worked but never felt compelled to touch the option again.
That's not to knock any of these; there are definitely scenarios in which they can be quite useful. It'll just depend on how you want to use them and how valuable they are to your particular circumstance.
Value
The free option gets you some pretty decent standard stuff, including landscape and satellite maps alongside maps from OpenCycle and OpenStreet, and an aerial map from Bing. One note: you'll need to be online to access these maps.
The cheapest of the two subscription tiers, which costs $3.99 for a year, will get you access to the Skyline AR feature, a 3D flyover feature, and allows for unlimited offline maps.
But if you want to get the full experience, including all those additional map layers, you'll need to go for the "Premium + Maps" package, which will run you a relatively reasonable $19.99 per year or can also be bought monthly for $4.99.
The verdict
Overall, ViewRanger is a solid app that stands as a great counterpart to other mapping or GPS tracking tools. The biggest advantage is the ability to download maps for offline use. Even with the free option, you get extra views of your hike where your live-tracking cuts out. The cheaper of the subscription models is a good deal for the casual hiker or outdoor enthusiast, like myself, despite some of its shortcomings, like a lack of interactive routes.
The full premium upgrade also has a lot to offer, but it's probably best reserved for the most avid hikers and outdoor folks among us, who will utilize all of the available map layers and hit spots where the shared routes and tracking options will be plentiful. If you live and breathe out on the trails and want to track everything you do, it's an excellent option to explore.
