ViewRanger Skyline uses your smartphone camera to conjure up an annotated real-time view of your surroundings. So, without further ado, here are some of our absolute fave outdoor navigation apps! 1. And learning to use both compass and GPS hiking app-theyвЂ™re complementary resources, after all-will deepen your navigational prowess, not to mention your appreciation for the ground youвЂ™ve covered and the terrain around you. Digital technology (and batteries) can and will malfunction, so youвЂ™re going to want some good old-fashioned backup at the ready in the event the screen goes screwy or altogether blank. These gadgets-and the apps below-arenвЂ™t replacements for hard-copy topographic maps and a compass. A Quick (but Important) Caveat Off the BatДonвЂ™t rely on your smartphone alone for backcountry navigation (or emergency signaling, or anything else for that matter). And if youвЂ™ve got the bug for wild places-and we imagine that describes an awful lot of our readership here at the Mountain House blog-youвЂ™re going to find yourself outside of that realm more than once. Here weвЂ™re going to round up some of the best hiking apps for offline navigation on the market: programs that serve up topographic charts, satellite images, trail guides, and other resources even when youвЂ™re outside the realm of cellular or data coverage. (And, incidentally, a 2013 report by the Outdoor Foundation suggested close to 40 percent of all Americans do take advantage of them while engaged in outdoor recreation.) Smartphone apps can deliver you instant trailside flower guides, birdsong identifiers, celestial charts-and, most notable of all of course, maps and other navigational references for both staying oriented and recording your own movements through the backcountry. Even if you personally eschew the regular use of a smartphone on your backpacking or paddling or hunting adventures, itвЂ™s not a bad idea to have one stowed away in the pack: If nothing else, itвЂ™s another emergency tool in case you run into trouble.Д«ut thereвЂ™s much else to take advantage of, outdoors-wise, with todayвЂ™s immensely powerful mobile devices. The use of smartphones out in the wilderness is controversial, but thereвЂ™s no question the technology has real utility.

Best free offline apps