Muir Way — a San Diego-based map and frame shop — is pioneering a new kind of printed map.
For all of you outdoor recreators who still use maps, we applaud you. But sometimes you need more than a fraying quadrangle with fading gridlines and incorrect boundaries.
This new collection of maps is attempting to reconcile our love for historical maps with our modern needs.
Muir Way’s Relief Series combines the look of vintage maps with expanded sections and modern map features for many of our national parks.
The company takes 1900s-era U.S. Geological Survey and local park maps and makes a digital composite. Then, it prints the finished topographic map on archival paper or stretched canvas for a vintage look.
The maps have modern elements the old USGS maps don’t — like elevation data marked by three-dimensional hillshade. Muir Way updates each park’s boundaries outlined in red (differentiating between older versions of the park borders that appear on the vintage USGS maps used).
The 30-plus-map collection showcases national parks from Black Canyon to the Adirondacks. Muir Way prints each map on fine art paper that can last up to 100 years and frames it in your choice of maple or walnut hardwood. They retail for $79.
And while they probably aren’t the map for when you venture into the field, they are vintage — and accurate — things of beauty.
