# CalTopo: Backcountry Mapping — Route Planning & Navigation

> Backcountry mapping, route planning, and offline navigation for outdoor adventures. (iPhone/iPad app by CalTopo LLC.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/caltopo-backcountry-mapping/id1460038458 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [CalTopo LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1460038457)
- Category: Navigation
- Price: Free
- Rating: 4.80/5 from 7,253 App Store ratings · 127 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 16.0 · 165 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2019-10-24
- Data updated: 2026-08-27
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/caltopo-backcountry-mapping/id1460038458/reviews.md

## What is CalTopo?

New on CalTopo: the CalTopo app is now satellite ready, allowing you to use many features of the app offline with satellite data!

Take the best mapping app with you wherever you go with the CalTopo app for iOS. Trusted by professional mountain guides, avalanche educators, and search and rescue teams, CalTopo has all the features you need to plan your next off-grid pursuit. Seamless integration between CalTopo online and your mobile device allows you to access and update your maps no matter where you are. Any changes you make will automatically sync across all devices, making exporting and importing your latest map a thing of the past.

The CalTopo app allows you to easily take your planning and navigation to the next level. Real time decision making in backcountry terrain is made easy with the ability to download maps and layers like slope angle shading to your device for offline use. Plan for conditions on your route with sun exposure, wind, precipitation and avalanche forecasts. View and track your location on the map using GPS, even if you are offline. Share maps with your teams or travel partners to plan collaboratively, and to ensure everyone has the necessary data. Monitor real time updates from the field, like your friends progress on a long outing with live tracking on shared maps. 

Plan and navigate your next adventure with the CalTopo App today!

Map layers include:
• MapBuilder Topo, Hybrid and Overlay
• Forest Service Maps
• Scanned Topos
• Global Imagery
• Shaded Relief
• Slope Angle Shading (including high resolution elevation data where available)
• Parcel data
• Public Lands
• Weekly Satellite Imagery
• NAIP Satellite Imagery
• Sun Exposure
• Marine Charts
• Weather Forecasting (including wind, precipitation, and temperatures)
• Snow and Water Gauge Data
• Fire History/Activity
• And many more

Support and Feature Requests:
Email us at help@caltopo.com.

## Key features

- Offline map downloads
- Satellite imagery
- Route planning
- GPS tracking
- Weather forecasting
- Collaborative map sharing
- Slope angle shading

## Chart rankings

- #123 in Top Free · Navigation (US App Store)

## What do users think of CalTopo?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 🚀 Powerful mapping features
- 💡 Extensive data layers
- 👍 Detailed trail and terrain information
- 👍 Useful for SAR operations
- 👍 Great for planning outdoor adventures

**Cons**

- 🐛 Buggy and unstable mobile app
- 🐛 Maps not always loading properly
- 🐛 Slow map rendering
- 🔋 High battery consumption
- 👎 Difficult to use for casual users

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Trails and tracks disappearing
- Coordinate display issues
- Frequent app crashes and freezes
- Incompatibility with older devices

**Most requested features**

- Add 3D map view
- Implement route snapping to trails
- Improve offline map download capabilities
- Add photo geotagging functionality
- Implement course-up map orientation

## Recent user reviews (10 of 127)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/caltopo-backcountry-mapping/id1460038458/reviews.md

### 5/5 — You get a lot for nothing!!

*2026-08-13, version 1.28.1*

This map is great. So many options for tools, views, importing, topography, etc.

I can’t believe that there is a free version with this many tools. I love that companies still exist that don’t want to just gouge your money.

### 1/5 — Requires Account Creation

*2026-07-23, version 1.28*

I hate this timeline.

Edit:
I got a reply from the developer explaining that they will soon offer caltopo account creation in addition to signing in with Google, Facebook, or other gross corporations.  I feel misunderstood here.  I hate having to sign in at all.  They made a good stab at PR, but everyone knows signing into hundreds of different services sucks.  My one star review stands.

### 1/5 — Requires Account Creation

*2026-07-10, version 1.27.1*

I hate this timeline.

### 5/5 — Great Topo Map

*2026-07-01, version 1.27*

I love how easy it is to mark up a map or see what the elevation is an any point.

### 1/5 — iOS is CalTopo’s lowest priority

*2026-06-23, version 1.26.2*

I’ve been using CalTopo since long before they created an app. It let me do things on a non-mobile no other mapping software can. I’ve been a subscriber for years. No more.

This app is garbage. If you need view-only access to your map library, it’s okay. If you’re actually making changes or re-planning what you’re going to hike/bike/paddle/whatever each day, you’ll pull your hair out.

All feature development is targeted at their web version. iOS is a buggy afterthought. Even Android has closer feature parity. Change can be good, but when it introduces bugs and they refuse to fix those bugs, you’ve got decay. Unfortunately, this app has crossed my personal threshold.

Here’s a shortlist of issues, much of which I’ve reported:
1) background location doesn’t work. They’re using too many resources and iOS is evicting them to save user battery (something it only does in extreme circumstances). Rather than fixing their problem, they post a “doesn’t work in low power mode” dialog. No other gps tracking software needs this dialog, CalTopo is just that embarrassing
2) related to this, when the app is killed by iOS (and not the user), it loses its mind. Expect to launch to a blank loading screen. You’ll need to force-quit or close and reload your map to get functionality again
3) no bulk edits. Managing a weeks-long trip and want to organize it better? Tough. Edit each and every waypoint manually (5 taps each)
4) disorganized export. If you want to sync data to an external device, good luck! That folder organization you just wasted your time on isn’t honored by the export pane. Every single waypoint out of possibly thousands is shown even for folders you’ve hidden.
5) corrupted imports. Yup, CalTopo (across platforms) doesn’t sanitize data. If you import perfectly function geojson that just doesn’t happen to use values CalTopo expects, you can end up with a corrupted map with items you can’t delete or even view properly
6) doesn’t honor visibility settings. On desktop and Android, labels are shown or not shown based on a folder setting. iOS doesn’t honor this
7) un-tappable POIs. The icon size you can set is below what CalTopo’s software understands how to let you tap. Since icon size is largely independent of viewport, you can’t even zoom in to fix this. Combine this with the always hidden labels and you can accidentally set yourself up with a map that is unusable on mobile
8) utterly broken caching. Been using weekly imagery to negotiate a tricky section of your adventure? I hope you aren’t traveling past cell coverage. This data is never cached. The second the app is exited (see above for how comment this is), you’ve lost your tool. Screenshots are about the only way around this
9) custom icons only work online. If your data set was imported from kml, you’re likely to have “custom” icons that point to Google’s servers. These also aren’t cached at all, meaning you’ll have a lot of [ ? ] icons all over your map.
10) broken offline tile management. The benefit of CalTopo is supposed to be its layer system. The problem is the lack of granularity on their caching tool. You can add layers one by one just fine, but you can’t remove them. If you’re trying to manage space on your device by removing the more detailed layers from early days in your trip while still retaining the base map, tough, you can’t. Delete is an all or nothing tool. This is extra fun because
11) CalTopo backs up their maps in your iOS backups. Yup. A properly functioning product would only back up your intentions (ie your data) and then redownload their tiles when needed (ie their data). Imagine if Netflix backed up offline movies to your iCloud account. You’d be pretty mad that your backup is taking so long, right?

I’m going to stop now because very few people are going to read this far (and CalTopo has already shown they don’t care by not fixing a single bug in years). Thanks for reading. I hope you are able to find software that actually works for you. CalTopo crossed my personal threshold for mismanagement when they decided to raise prices on me while I was on an expedition.

### 3/5 — Map frequently crashing and resetting

*2026-06-14, version 1.26.2*

The maps is generally usably, however I've noticed it crashing and resetting map when changing the sentinel weekly overlay visibility while on 3d mode. I've also experienced this when toggling slope angle shading on. I'm on iPhone 14 Pro, an I running out of RAM?

### 4/5 — The Crosshairs suck

*2026-06-12, version 1.26.2*

This is a great application, I especially like the slope contrast colors so you can instantly get an idea how steep a slope is.  But, for some reason the crosshairs that tell you where something/you are at, are so ridiculously small and thin that you can’t really see them unless you stop and try really hard for a while - and you need to only be doing this when you are hiding in some shade (otherwise you will never see them if you are out in the sun).  It makes it hard to use the map to see where you are or where something is, which is kind of the entire point of a map application.  You would think they would have a way to make the crosshairs nice and big and bold and obvious or some other color or something, but nope.

### 5/5 — The way to go

*2026-06-04, version 1.26.1*

I’ve used half a dozen different mapping apps over the years as a professional mt guide and SAR specialist. CalTopo has steadily improved since it came into the scene and is now the gold standard. Keep up the refinements!

### 5/5 — Game Changer

*2026-05-13, version 1.26*

My team uses CalTopo for search and rescue operations and it’s an invaluable tool. We use it on every operation.

### 3/5 — Lots of features, doesn’t handle large datasets, poor UX, & buggy

*2026-05-12*

Update: already documented the issue throughly on the forum and created tickets for the others. Have some that are years old at this point. 

Keep have to restarting the app when using offline every 10-15 minutes, unintuitive downloading of layers, obvious tiling bugs on things like sun/shade layers, unresponsive with ~1k waypoints and recommended workarounds are massively tedious. 

Geared for single map SAR use and heavily planned routes. I keep trying caltopo wanting to like it but bounce off. :(

**Developer response:** The offline behavior you described does not sound like the expected behavior. Please send us an email at help@caltopo.com so we can dig more into it as well as address some of the other issues you described.

## Frequently asked questions about CalTopo

### What does the CalTopo app do?

The CalTopo app is a comprehensive tool for planning and navigating backcountry adventures. It allows users to download detailed maps and layers for offline use, view real-time location via GPS, and access weather forecasts. It's designed for off-grid pursuits and is trusted by professionals in outdoor fields.

### What are the key features of CalTopo?

Key features include offline map downloads with satellite data, route planning and navigation, GPS tracking even when offline, and access to various map layers such as slope angle shading, public lands, and weather forecasts. It also supports collaborative map sharing and live tracking for group outings.

### Is CalTopo free to use?

Based on the provided information, the CalTopo app is offered for free. There are no mentions of subscription fees, in-app purchases, or advertisements within the application's description.

### What kind of maps can I access with CalTopo?

The app provides access to a wide array of map layers including MapBuilder Topo, Hybrid and Overlay, Forest Service Maps, Scanned Topos, Global Imagery, Shaded Relief, Slope Angle Shading, Parcel data, Public Lands, Weekly and NAIP Satellite Imagery, Sun Exposure, Marine Charts, Weather Forecasting, and Fire History/Activity, among others.

### Who is the target audience for CalTopo?

This app is designed for individuals who engage in off-grid activities and require robust mapping and navigation capabilities. This includes professional mountain guides, avalanche educators, search and rescue teams, hikers, climbers, skiers, and anyone planning backcountry expeditions.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.28.1 — 2026-08-12

Fix for photo waypoints sometimes not syncing

### 1.28 — 2026-07-18

Added the ability to get an email for a summary of your account and subscription details from the Account Page.

### 1.27.1 — 2026-07-08

Small bug fix

### 1.27 — 2026-06-30

Snap to performance enhancements

### 1.26.2 — 2026-06-09

Bug fix

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-27.*