Advice please choosing my first GPS for hiking in the US when I live in the UK

[kaniukr]

Wondered if anyone could advise me on which GPS to go for to help with navigation off trail in the South West as although I've used a GPS once I've never owned one or downloaded a map on to one, so I'm pretty ignorant about them

I was thinking the Garmin Oregon 650. From what I can make out I would then have to pay extra separately for any 1:24,000 topo maps as I don't think you can get them bundles with the GPS even in an extra reduced total cost package deal. (I think the 650t comes with a 1:100,000 USA map)

The only other slight complication is that I live in the UK althougjh I would not need it for use in Europe. I guess I'm ok to buy any Oregon 650 here and buy the U.S. maps for it, or I may be in the US this year, so would I be better off buying it it the

[BruteForce]

Any Garmin should work just fine. If hiking, smaller is better. I personally use the older GPS 60csx. You can download many TOPO maps for free at http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/

[Sandstone Addiction]

I have both the Garmin Map 60csx and I just bought an Garmin Oregon 450 a year ago. Haven't used the Map 60 since. The interface with the touch screen, while not up to cell phone standards by any stretch, is so much better than the toggle thingie. Inputting coords by hand is simple and quick. Navigating through the features you use frequently is a breeze as well.

Although one thing I do miss about the Map 60csx is the incredible battery life. My Oregon goes through batteries quickly.

The Oregon 650 has lots of fancy features, including an 8mp camera...do you plan to use all those? I've found that I don't use 90% of the features on mine. I basically like seeing where I've been, making sure I'm at the correct location, seeing how long and far I've hiked, and finding an occasional geocache. Haven't really needed much more than that.

I'll second what BruteForce said about gpsfiledepot, so far, I've found all the maps I needed on that site.

[kaniukr]

Thanks. I've looked at GPSfiledepot and presumably if you want a detailed 1:24 map for hiking you have to be quite lucky to get the area you want?
For example I just tried to find one for the western end of the Yampa Bench Road in Dinosaur National Monument and couldn't find a 1:24 of anywhere in Dinosaur NM. I guess there's maps for the whole of Utah and the South-West that it would be on, but I guess the detail in those would be more like !:100 and not too reliable for precise hiking - or am I doing something wrong and not looking in the right place?

[kiwi_outdoors]

I've been using paper maps and Topo! and Garmin GPs as they evolved since 1974 - and last weekend I used an iPhone 6 and Topo Maps+ off the grid with previously downloaded hires maps of only the area of interest - its so much better - you can see the map and where you are! I was driving and wifey was using the iPhone (we were trying to find an Obsidian mine, four, actually).

[phatch]

I use BackCountry Navigator on my Android phone.

[Iceaxe]

I use a Garmin eTrex, the very first one introduced in about 1998. It does everything I need ;-) It tells me where I'm at and it tells me where I'm going. Everything else is just battery sucking whistles and bells.

[hikster11]

I have a Garmin eTrek that I used until last year. It was a great unit easy to use once you learned the menu. The reason I upgraded to Garmin 62s was that the reception is so much better than my old eTrek. The eTrek worked fine but my tracks were not that accurate on exactly where I went. The Garmin 62s is a much better device in my option but it is also more expensive.