How do I plan a trip by terrain?

Open a terrain page — prairie, hills, canyon, desert, coast, alpine, forest, and the rest — then follow the plates. Each place has photos, a landform note, and neighbors on the chart.

Does The Field Atlas cover American national parks?

Yes. National parks sit beside gorges, dunes, and coasts.

The Field Atlas

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A worn survey chart with a brass compass and a pressed fern

Legend of the chart

Read the ground first

Choose the country by its landform, then by its road.

The legend

Terrains

Landforms on the American chart, written as a legend.

01 · Hill country
Hills
Hills are the American middle distance: not alpine, not flat.
47 platesRead the chapter →
02 · Tallgrass and dry prairie
Prairie
Prairie is the American distance without a summit: tallgrass, Dakota mixed-grass, coastal grassland, and fire-kept dry prairie under a working sky.
13 platesRead the chapter →
03 · Vertical country
Canyon
This chapter is the vertical country: river gorges, plateau rims, and slot canyons cut through the Colorado Plateau, with a few quieter cuts farther afield.
95 platesRead the chapter →
04 · Basin and butte
Desert
American deserts are not empty. Monument Valley, Death Valley, White Sands, and Organ Pipe sit beside quieter basins where the light lasts longer than the towns.
42 platesRead the chapter →
05 · Seas of sand
Dunes
Sand dunes gather where wind has a long fetch and loose grain: Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes, Oregon’s coastal ridges, and inland basins that still behave like a shore.
9 platesRead the chapter →
06 · High country
Alpine
Alpine country means the Rockies, Sierras, Cascades, and Alaska ranges where trees thin and stone takes over.
65 platesRead the chapter →
07 · Canopy country
Forest
American forests are not one biome. Coastal redwoods, Pacific Northwest fir, eastern hardwoods, and isolated woods on the plains all ask for different walking.
34 platesRead the chapter →
08 · Headland and shore
Coast
The American coast is not only a beach. Headlands, sea stacks, tide flats, and volcanic islands sit beside quieter strands.
15 platesRead the chapter →
09 · Water and grass
Wetland
Wetlands are some of the most living ground in the United States: sawgrass, cypress, prairie potholes, and salt marsh.
6 platesRead the chapter →
10 · Fire country
Volcanic
Volcanic landscapes run from Hawaiian shield slopes to Cascade cones and high desert craters.
35 platesRead the chapter →
11 · Ice country
Glacier
Glacier country still means Alaska first, then a handful of Lower 48 icefields that are thinning year by year.
2 platesRead the chapter →

The roads

Regions

Road country, folded by sky and mile.

Every plate

Field index

Every plate on the chart — parks, grasslands, and high country — written as a line you can open.

Asked at the trailhead

Questions already asked

How do I plan a trip by terrain?: Open a terrain page — prairie, hills, canyon, desert, coast, alpine, forest, and the rest — then follow the plates. Each place has photos, a landform note, and neighbors on the chart.
Does The Field Atlas cover American national parks?: Yes. National parks sit beside gorges, dunes, and coasts.

The full chart remains in the atlas.

Read the ground first

Terrains

Hills

Prairie

Canyon

Desert

Dunes

Alpine

Forest

Coast

Wetland

Volcanic

Glacier

Regions

Southwest

Pacific

Rockies

Alaska

Islands

Great Lakes

Plains

East

South

Field index

Questions already asked