Ok, so everyone knows about Google Maps. It's handy, but it doesn't do everything. It's coming up on that time of year where a good chunk of the member trailers will be bedding down for the winter, which means it's the perfect time for trip planning. So, what tools do you use? Here's a couple of the ones I fall back on regularly.
So, let's say that you want to limit your driving time for whatever reason. Say the weekend is coming up and you want to go somewhere new within a couple hours of home. Or you've got your basecamp set up somewhere new and want to explore for the day. For my family, we've got kids and I know that they're good for about two hours of driving at a stretch, tops and I'm really pushing it if we try to drive more than four hours total in a day. https://www.oalley.net lets you enter a start point and a driving time. It will then show you on the map where you could go within that time. I've found that it's a bit on the conservative side, especially if traffic is light. It does have a useful feature where you can add different color layers for different days of driving. For example, during my last trip we had a destination in mind and a week to kill but the in-between was up in the air. We could bomb down the highway, which would have gotten us there sooner, but really, who wants to do that? So I set a 3 hour radius, picked a campsite towards the edge of that radius, then plotted another 3 hour radius from the campsite, picked another campsite... etc til we got to our destination. It helped me find a route that I probably wouldn't have considered if I had just been using Google.
Are you a boondocker trying to get more info on an area? I'd like to point you towards https://www.hillmap.com It's handy in that it will let you compare two different maps side by side in two panes that scroll and zoom together instead of having to flip between Google Map or Satellite view. It also has different maps available, though not all of the overlays are functional anymore. It's fun to play around with, especially with the different topo maps and the satellite view.
The other big one that I use is the DeLorme Atlas and Gazetteer for whatever state I'm passing through. They also have the distinct advantage of not needing power or cell signal to use. I mark mine up with notes as we find interesting places to check out. I recently loaned my Washington state one to a friend who's been boondocking the PNW since the 70's and he marked it up with some good spots that he goes back to regularly.
So what about you? Any trip planning tools that you've found useful?