As a parent, I am often surprised by the amount of information that my oldest child simply doesn’t know. While influencers have gone viral asking their children to mime how to make a phone call or identify a VHS, it’s easy to laugh when little Jessie not knowing how to use a VCR is inconsequential.. However, there are a few skills that I’d prefer younger generations continue to learn, even if it seems unnecessary. With advancements in GPS coordination systems and the expectation of young teens to have cell phones that often include their own Maps app, there are still plenty of reasons why children should learn how to read a map. Let’s discuss a few of those reasons and provide an overview of how to read a map.
Why Map Reading Matters
For children, map reading is a skill that aids development by building children’s spacial reasoning skills. Map reading can also strengthen their ability to visualize by practicing picturing locations of places or objects in relation to other things. According to Dr. Julie Dillemuth, children’s author and spatial cognition expert: “When you look at maps, you are building a mental map. Mental maps are really important because it gives you freedom to navigate where you want to go” in face of inevitable detours, roadblocks, and GPS errors.” For older children that may be used to relying on their GPS, map reading gives them an alternate way to solve problems if their phone dies or is stolen during travels, they hit a “dead” spot in the road where the GPS isn’t updating. In general, it’s a good way for kids to be able to visualize where they currently are and where they’re going. A few good ways to start working on building this skill for children is to draw maps of your home (or even their bedroom or living room), making treasure maps with toys hidden in specific locations, map coloring pages and puzzles of maps.
Though adults can also experience getting lost after relying on GPS during travels, there are more occasions where adults may need to know how to read a map. Camping, hiking, and mountain trails often require basic map reading familiarity, especially when topography is a part of the adventure. These are the kinds of outdoor trips where phones can die, fall into water, get lost on a trail, or simply not have service, and survival will depend on a person’s ability to read a map. If you find yourself lost in the Ozark Mountains, where your phone will most likely not have signal, keep a map handy. Here’s what you need to know first.
First, locate the “legend.” This is a section of a map that contains the meanings and explanations for symbols, colors, labels, and map scale. This may also have other usage instructions important to interpreting the map itself. The legend can also be located at the front of an Atlas or book of maps, separate from the images of the maps themselves. Make sure to note how roads and numbers are shown, as well as distance and various landmarks.
Most maps are oriented with north at the top of the page, putting south at the bottom, east to the right, and west to the left. When you first start to use a map, you should orient yourself north as well, to be able to tell your direction in relation to the map. If you have a compass, this is easy: the red magnetized needle automatically points north. Align your needle with the “orienting arrow” and you now have north. However, if you’ve been relying on GPS for your directions, chances are you might not carry a compass on hand.
Finding North
If you don’t have a compass, there are four other main ways to find north: the sun, the stars, a watch face, or the stick method. First, if it’s close to sunrise or sunset, the easiest method to find north is to face the sun. Since the sun rises in the east, you can face the sun close to sunrise and know that north will be to your left. If the sun is setting in its westerly direction, then north will be to your right. If the sun isn’t visible at all and you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, then it’s time to use the stars. Just like sailors and pirates from movies, anyone can locate north by finding the North Star, or Polaris—this is the brightest star at the end of the “handle” of the Little Dipper. If you can find the Big Dipper, find the brightest star and the end of the “pot” and follow a straight line upward to the next brightest star in the sky, and you should find Polaris/the end of the Little Dipper’s handle.
Let’s consider that you’ve gone on a hiking trip and it’s the middle of the day. Several hours have passed and you’re not sure how far away you are from sunrise or sunset. In this situation, you can use the watch or the stick method. If you don’t have a watch, you can simply draw a watch face with the current time onto a piece of paper. Line up the “12” with the sun, then draw a line from the center of the watch between the hour hand and the sun. This line will point north.
Finally, you can also use the stick method. This method involves finding a decently long stick and a relatively clear, flat area. Insert the stick into the ground where it can cast a long shadow. Mark the end of the stick’s shadow with large stone (we’ll call this Stone 1) —this will tell you which direction is west. Wait approximately 20 minutes to an hour and mark the end of the stick’s shadow with another large stone (Stone 2)—this will represent east.
Draw a line between Stone 1 and Stone 2 to mark your east to west line. Now all you have to do is bisect this line, and you’ll know which direction is north and which is south! Once you know north, you can orient yourself with the map and start to read the rest of the map. When you’ve practiced map reading regularly, you may also find north simply by knowing your location in relation to the surrounding area.
How to Read a Map
Maps are full of symbols, colors, and lines meant to represent large areas of land on a single page or image—knowing how to read these is necessary to be able to discern what’s on the page. First, every map is broken up into tiles or grids. Knowing how to read the grid reference will give you more accuracy. According to Outdoor Guide, “Always read to the right and then upwards when using a map. If a location reference reads something like 2410, read right to grid line 24, then up to grid line 10. This is grid referencing at its most basic, allowing you to locate yourself within an area roughly the size of a small neighborhood.” The map scale goes hand in hand with locational accuracy as well. This is a series of numbers which represent the ratio within which the map is scaled. For example, if a map scale reads “1:24,000,” that means every inch of the map corresponds to 24,000 inches in person. This can then be converted to feet, miles, or meters—sometimes a map scale will go ahead and convert for the user. In this example, 24,000 inches is also 2,000 feet: one inch on the map is equal to 12 feet in real life.
Some map colors are obvious, with blue representing water and green representing vegetation. There are six major colors in maps: blue, black, white, yellow, green, and brown. Green, more specifically, represents impassable vegetation, white represents open woods, and yellow is for open, unobstructed land, like fields. Black can either represent man-made features like roads or railroads, or it can represent rock formations like boulders and mountains. Brown is used for land features, such as embankments and contours (which we’ll get more later). Red and orange will usually indicate major roadways. However, there are can always be variations to this, so please consult your legend to make sure you are interpreting the colors of your map accurately.
Finally, contour lines: possibly the least important for basic map reading unless you’re one of the more outdoorsy readers. These are thin, solid black lines that cover topographical maps. These maps represent the landscapes of an area—you might see these kinds of maps specifically when on camping or hiking trips. These lines indicate the changes in elevation and depression and share space with “contour intervals,” which look like thick bolded lines on every fifth contour line. Numbers on these lines usually mean elevation or depression, depending on which direction the numbers are trending. The distance between contour lines is typically 10-20 feet. The distance between the lines also indicates close: wide apart means a gentle slope while closer lines are a steep slope.
If you’ve gotten lost after climbing to the top of a mountain or found your way down in a valley, knowing how to read these lines could help you determine where you are, especially if you can read landscape features. These are additional contour-related symbols that indicate valleys, peaks, ridges, spurs, and more. However, this section can get pretty lengthy, so for a more thorough explanation of this, head here. We’ll also include additional and more detailed resources at the end of this post.
How to Find Where You Are
Now that you can read the basic symbols on a map, how do you find where you are? The first and most rudimentary way is to observe and identify your surroundings. Find notable features on the map and see if you can see it in person—or vice versa. If our lost climber at the top of the mountain can see a lake below, he can possibly locate where he is by finding his peak on the map, especially if there’s one located next to a body of water matching the shape he can see from above. In a tourist town, this is much easier: if you’re looking at the Statue of Liberty and can find it on the map, you’ll be set! When you know where you are, you can use the grid reference to map your route.
A good tip for how to make sure you’re on track when on foot is to “thumb” it. When you know where you are, place your thumb on that location on the map, keeping it there as you travel. As you reference the map, you will know where you came from and can move your thumb to your current location, making sure you aren’t going in circles. This is a good way to keep yourself oriented and take your bearings. This can also give you a good mental reference for how much distance is being traveled in a set amount of time and will also keep you from having to constantly refer to your grid reference.
Of course, whether you’re lost on the trail or lost on the highway, look for signage—Interstate Signways made them to guide the way!
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