New Mexico Atlas & Gazetteer

If you spend a lot of time in the back country these maps are the best alternative, from my point of view. It's true the maps don't have labels on the back country cow trails another reviewer complained of. The fact is, neither do the roads. But it's often helpful when you come to the fork in a dirt two-track and they both wander off a few degrees off North, to be able to crack open the Delorme and discover the one on the left plays out just over that hill over there at a windmill. There's no excuse for needing labels these days. A compass and Delorme will allow you to locate yourself in most instances.

However, even the back woods purist ought to own a GPS. I've been wandering around the back woods longer than most readers of this have been alive. I rarely get lost, but I frequently don't know exactly where I am. Occasionally my old TrailBlazer saved me a lot of walking to get back to the truck. Once it saved my life in a snowstorm, I imagine.

For motor traveling you'll cover too much ground to allow the 7.5 minute maps to help much. You pass from one map to the next too quickly. When you are afoot a couple of them become useful. Meanwhile, I use Delorme as one of the ways to keep track of my wanderings. I recommend them wherever you are. And a GPS, as well.


I have not changed my mind ...   January 28, 2004
9 out of 21 found this review helpful

I am the guy from Gallup that wrote earlier this atlas is near useless.

I have not changed my mind.

The Benchmark atlas, for the same price, is a much better atlas. Buy it instead.


My favorite New Mexico map   October 7, 2005
Mike Smith (Albuquerque, NM)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

This map is fairly detailed, and well organized. Its back cover divides the state into squares, and each square equals a page. See the number on the square, and turn to that page. It's that easy. (It also has a decent index.)
There are a lot of maps of New Mexico, and anyone really obsessed with exploring its backroads should get copies of the USGS five-minute maps for the areas they're particularly interested in. But, for a good, general, usually adequate map of the entire state, this is by far the best map to buy. It's got many dirt roads, ranch roads, and little known landmarks. I've spent years of driving and exploring with my brother and my friends, stopping frequently to crack this map open and find out where on earth we were.
Occasionally, if something wasn't in this map, it was in the Benchmark "New Mexico Road and Recreation Atlas," but of the two this one's always been the more helpful. You should get a copy, and then, you should get out.
There's a lot to see.


newer is not better   September 1, 2005
R. Lallatin (Mojave Desert)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

The newer editions of the Delorme Atlases are much inferior to, and skimpier on data, than their older editions. I assume they did this to save on printing costs. The maps contain only about half of the data that the older additions had. For example,in the new editions there are elevations listed for only the highest peaks, few of which are even named, and there is no data about mines or springs or many of the other features that the old editions included. Other than the newly added GPS coordiante data, they are just glorified road maps, which you can get at the gas station. I own several of these from many years back, but am very disappointed in the new editions.