Columbia River Gorge - West is one of the new omnibus maps from Green Trails. As indicated by the title, GT 428S covers the western half of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, from Troutdale to Hood River in Oregon, and from Camas to the White Salmon River in Washington. Unlike most other hiking maps of the Gorge, GT 428S also extends west beyond Bridal Veil to include Oxbow Regional Park, Dabney State Recreation Area, the Sandy River Delta, Blue Lake Park, and the Gresham-Fairview Trail, and north far enough to show the Stebbins Creek Trail and the Augspurger Mountain Trail in their entirety.

The map is printed on a waterproof, tear-resistant paper called Eco-Stone. As is typical for the omnibus maps, GT 428S is printed on both sides of an 18x24 inch sheet that is twice the size of a traditional Green Trails map, but folds to the same compact 6x9 inch size. The scale of 1:63,360 is actually slightly larger than the 1:69,500 scale of a traditional Green Trails 15 minute map, but the colorful graphics and the wealth of detail make this map appear more crowded. My previous favorite map of the Gorge, from the USDA Forest Service, is published at the same scale, and covers a larger area, but unfolds to an unwieldy 27x60 inches.

GT 428S will be much more user-friendly under the wet and windy conditions typical for the Pacfic Northwest. It provides a compact and very legible overview of most of GT 428 Bridal Veil, GT 429 Bonneville Dam, and GT 430 Hood River, along with narrow slices of GT 397 Wind River and GT 398 Willard in Washington, and GT 460 Cherryville in Oregon. A section of the Pacific Crest Trail, from Table Mountain in Oregon to Three Corner Rock in Washington, runs vertically, crossing and recrossing the match line between the front and back maps. The classic loop routes really stand out in this format, but this map should be supplemented by a more detailed map for routefinding in trail-rich areas like Wahkeena Falls, Horsetail Falls, Tanner Creek, and Hamilton Mountain.

GT 428S shows some trails not previously included on the 15 minute maps, but there are some curious editorial choices. Scramble routes are included for Rock of Ages, Munra Point, and Wauna Point, but not for the equally popular Ruckel Ridge.

The compact legend (visible in the cover image) provides a key for trails, trailheads, parking restrictions, campgrounds and backcountry camps, winter recreation routes, and stream crossings. To maximize the area available for the map, the traditional GT table of trails has been abbreviated to an alphabetic list, with trail numbers and map coordinates. A table showing the coordinates for 20 popular waterfalls is a nice feature for this waterfall-rich area. Overall, Green Trails has a winner with this map. ( )