Plan trips faster than ever with the new USFS Recreation Sites overlay in Gaia GPS. This new map layer clearly marks U.S. Forest Service campgrounds, trailheads, visitor centers, and other points of interest at high zoom levels, letting you view your options across an entire national forest. And on iOS devices, you can tap on a site to learn about fees, access restrictions, and more.

The USFS Recreation Sites layer receives constant updates as the USFS adds more sites to the dataset. The clear, intuitive icons stand out on just about any base map and scale as you zoom. So whether you’re trying to pinpoint a trailhead within a densely vegetated satellite image, or looking for campsites during the first stages of trip planning, this layer will help speed up your search.

National Forests and Grasslands: About as Public as
Public Land Gets

The U.S. Forest Service manages around 193 million acres of the United States as national forests and grasslands. These areas serve a wide-reaching mission statement, which encompasses conservation and research, as well as multiple-use recreation. That makes USFS land ideal for hiking, camping, trail running, skiing, and climbing, as well as fishing, hunting, and motorized vehicle use.

Dispersed camping is more likely to be permitted on USFS land than in other, more stringently protected areas. And unlike most national parks, national forests and grasslands are typically pet-friendly.

How to Use the USFS Recreation Sites Layer

The new USFS Recreation Sites Layer is available with a Premium Membership across all platforms: iOS, Android, and on gaiagps.com. You can find it under the Feature/Weather Overlays category of the map manager. The layer is only interactive on iOS devices currently, but we’re working to bring that same capability to the Android app in the near future.

We recommend using the USFS Recreation Sites overlay in conjunction with the USFS Visitor map. The USFS Recreation Sites layer is more up-to-date. However, it’s a work in progress, so there may be some sites currently visible on USFS Visitor map that aren’t yet available on the USFS Recreation Sites overlay.

USFS Recreation Sites and USFS Roads and USFS Roads and Trails make another great pairing. The combination gives you a complete look at Forest Service infrastructure that you can overlay atop any base map.