I use several of the of the National Geographic Trails Illustrated Maps. You can usually find these at the various ranger stations around the area as well as most outdoor outfitters and as well as online. The maps are detailed, easy to read and nearly indestructible. You can always find one in my pack. They are around $12 a piece and totally worth it.
I use free topo maps of North Carolina with my Garmin GPS. Of course you could always buy Garmin’s $90 topo maps, but why bother. I couldn’t even find a 24K map of the area from Garmin. The only issue I’ve had is that the map is so detailed, it slows my GPS down to a crawl at times.
Google Earth and Google Maps are both used extensively. I really like the Google Maps terrain feature and find very easy to see the rise and fall of elevation.
Hubbard Scientific INC, makes a nice raised relief map of Western North Carolina. I found the “Knoxville” (NI 17-1) map covered most of the area. It includes Smoky Mountains National Park, Pisgah, Asheville, Hot Springs and the Mount Mitchell area. I wish it went a little further east to include Linville Gorge and Grandfather mount, but these fall on the “Charlotte” (NI 17-2) map.
