National Geographic Maps Baja California

Snow is starting to fall throughout the U.S. and Canada and with it interest quickly peaks in warmer climates. While the economy has made it less attractive to board a flight to the Mediterranean or other far-flung exotic destinations, Mexico remains tangible for even the most frugal and depending on your location could be just minutes away.

Located on the Northwest corner of Mexico is the Baja Peninsula, over 700 miles in length from the U.S. border to its southern terminus in Cabo San Lucas. Highly diverse, the peninsula contains forests, deserts, agricultural valleys, and a vast coastline with rugged cliffs, protected coves, and hundreds of miles of unmolested sand beaches.

Baja offers a variey of experiences for travelers. Those seeking luxury resorts will find the Los Cabos resort corridor with its Nicklaus designed golf courses and lavish resorts an ideal destination. The Los Cabos International Airport (SJD) at San Jose del Cabo is located just a few miles north of Cabo san Lucas and is serviced with direct flights from Frontier, Alaska Airlines, America West, Continental, Delta, and Mexicana Airlines.

Those seeking a more adventurous, off-the-beaten path experience need only hit the road on MX-1 the main highway which runs the length of the peninsula. This is a drive of a lifetime and is not the typical American road trip. You can easily bridge hours and hundreds of miles in the central portions of the peninsula without seeing a convenience store, let alone a place to stop for gas. With it though comes incredible beauty and the rare opportunity to explore a region of the Earth that is still virgin to over commercialization.


Surfers consider Baja one of the premier destinations in the Western Hemisphere. The Seven Sisters a stretch of seven right point breaks from Punta Cono to Punta Rosarito just north of the Baja California / Baja California Sur state line offer incredible surfing in the winter months with strong west or northwest swells. One of the best things about surfing in Baja is the quantity of great locations and the ability to break free of the crowds with just a little exploration.


Baja is of worldwide importance to marine wildlife as well. Surrounding the peninsula on both the Pacific Ocean side as well as the Gulf of California are a series of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and protected areas. Most notably the El Vizcaino Gray Whale Sanctuary on the western coast of Baja California Sur (mid-peninsula) contains two lagoons, Ojo de Liebre and San Ignacio, which serve as key wintering and reproduction areas for Gray Whales, Harbour Seals, Elephant Seals, Blue Whales, and four species of endangered sea turtles.

For the past several months National Geographic cartographers in cooperation with local government, the Nature Conservancy of Mexico, UNESCO, and local experts have been carefully researching and developing a series of two new Adventure Maps for Baja California, which are now available. The two maps, Baja California and Baja California Sur, combine highly detailed topography with up-to-date roads and the locations of key points of interest. Unlike other maps of the peninsula, each of our new Baja maps contain extensive place and feature names, backroads, historical places , and important service features (such as gas and diesel stations). Mexicali, Tijuana, Ensenada, La Paz, Cabo San Lucas, San Jose' Del Cabo, and the Los Cabos Resort Corridor are detailed in inset maps that pinpoint post offices, churches, government facilities, and popular tourist destinations.

Having traveled to Baja on several occasions via car, cruise ship, and plane I recall using a variety of guide books and the now out-of-print AAA map. Obviously I'm a bit biased, but these maps are amazing and are perfect examples of National Geographic quality. Should you be one of the 200,ooo expected in Baja next week for the Baja 1000, be sure to look for our friends at Too Much Fun Promotions (Armando Carrasco) in Ensenada or in the pits at race mile 108.

Our new Baja maps are available at the National Geographic Online store and at retailers in Mexico and of course closer to home.

:: Learn More About Baja ::

Looking for a bit more on Baja? Check out these articles from our Adventure and Traveler magazines:

Preserving Baja's Coastal Treasures from National Geographic Traveler's award-winning Intelligent Travel Blog. "Is Baja on the Block?" looks at how the spread of tourism and development is threatening the integrity of Baja California in Mexico. Here, he introduces some of the people trying to help sustain the marine heritage of the region. See the original article in this month's issue of National Geographic Traveler.

The Baja Blueprint from National Geographic Adventure

It's Geography Awareness Week!

National Geographic invites budding explorers on a seven-day "tour" of the marvelous cultures and natural wonders of the Americas during Geography Awareness Week 2008, Nov. 16-22. Geography Awareness Week is part of Geography Action!, an annual conservation and awareness program for schools and students in grades K through 12, designed to educate and excite youngsters about the world's natural, cultural and historic treasures.

Visit our Geography Action! and My Wonderful World web sites for more information, activities and teacher resources.

Coincident with Geography Awareness Week is GIS Day on November 19th. GIS Day provides an international forum for users of geographic information systems (GIS) technology to demonstrate real-world applications that are making a difference in our society.

National Geographic Teams with EPA to Map Ecosystems

National Geographic Maps is collaborating with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create maps and web resources focused on "ecosystem services," a concept that has emerged in recent years reflecting the societal benefits obtained from ecosystems like forests and wetlands, including food production, flood control, water for manufacturing and energy, and open space for recreation and spiritual renewal. NG Maps will employ its cartographic talent and tradition to communicate these concepts and their importance to non-technical audiences including policy makers, planners and the public.

Read the Full EPA Press release:

Giant Traveling Maps, Oh My!

A giant National Geographic map of North America, measuring 26 feet by 35 feet, is traveling to schools, museums and festivals across the country this year, giving student explorers a geographic experience like no other. The National Geographic Giant Traveling Map brings with it rich content and exciting activities to enliven the study of geography, making it a fun, interactive experience.

The North American map is the third in National Geographic's Giant Traveling Map series. Africa began touring in 2006, followed by Asia in 2007. In the 2008-09 school year, more than 90,000 U.S. students will have the unique experience of walking on a National Geographic Giant Traveling Map.

The new giant map, designed for grades K-8, tours with a trunk full of accessories, including interactive games, geography adventures, atlases and books that teach students about the physical characteristics of North America as well as its rich history and varied cultures. 

Some of the activities included are "A Tale of Twenty Cities," in which students explore the physical and economic reasons behind the locations of North American cities, and "Grocery Store Geography," in which bean-bag-tossing skills are called upon to test students' knowledge of where foods are produced in the continent.

To learn more about the Giant Traveling Map project, for borrowing information, or to download map activities, visit ngsednet.org/giantmaps.

NatGeoMaps Goes North to Alaska

Outdoor enthusiasts in the Anchorage area can learn how to use a GPS with map software to plan hikes, hunts and other activities in a free clinic at REI this Thursday at 7 p.m.

Our Jeff Caulfield will take you through a simple trip planning exercise, discuss "on the trail" applications of GPS and give you tips on how to use GPS in the navigation process.

Jeff will have some freebies for attendees -- disks with a guide to Map & GPS use, trails, and GMU boundaries to add to yout TOPO! maps.

An Interesting Mural Map Project

Our mural world and U.S. maps are quite popular.  We thought this was a great example of creative solutions for a challenging installation. 

Thanks to Matthew Sheppard for sharing his experience.

Navigating with National Geographic: Seattle Region

Outdoor enthusiasts in the Seattle area can learn how to use a GPS with map software to plan hikes and other activities in a series of free evening clinics at REI next week.

Our Jeff Caulfield will take you through a simple trip planning exercise, discuss "on the trail" applications of GPS and give you tips on how to use GPS in the navigation process.

Clinics begin at 7 p.m. Click on links for maps and directions to each store:

9.8.08 :: REI Tacoma, WA
9.9.08 :: REI Redmond, WA
9.10.08 :: REI Seattle, WA
9.11.08 :: REI Issaquah, WA

Two Green Girls on the Road

The Colorado NatGeoMaps office was recently visited by Mary Logan Barmeyer of The Green Guide and her cousin Trish in the midst of a cross-country trip exploring low-consumption, low-budget travel.

Their trip was chronicled on a blog and our map-based GeoStoryteller. Follow it to Colorado and you'll find a picture of a Trails Illustrated map in production.

TOPO! Maps for ArcGIS Users

Over the years we've found many GIS users like having topographic maps as a base layer for their projects. We created a product based on our TOPO! software that lets ArcGIS users easily add our high-resolution, color-corrected scans of USGS topographic maps, along with hillshade and DEMs.

TOPO! Pro for ArcGIS is available along with an individual state's data, or you can buy a dataset for the entire US on a USB drive.

It supports KML export for ArcGIS Explorer or Google Earth.

Please ask about our ESRI Conference special, good through August.

We also introduced TOPO! USA Cache for ArcGIS Server for those needing an enterprise solution.



For more information, please call David Wright at 800-962-1643 x 108

Navigating with National Geographic: DC Area

Outdoor enthusiasts in the DC area can learn how to use a GPS with map software to plan hikes and other activities in a series of free evening clinics at REI next week.

Our Jeff Caulfield will take you through a simple trip planning exercise, discuss "on the trail" applications of GPS and give you tips on how to use GPS in the navigation process.

Clinics begin at 7 p.m. Click on links for maps and directions to each store:

8.18.08 :: REI Timonium, MD
8.19.08 :: REI Fairfax, VA
8.20.08 :: REI Bailey's Crossroads, VA
8.21.08 :: REI College Park, MD