Best iPhone App for Following GPX Routes

[alaughlin]

Heading to Colorado in early September to hike Chicago Basin to Mt Eolus, and Mt Sneffels on a following day.

I'm wondering what iPhone app is best for downloading and following GPX routes from 14ers, especially apps that continue to work well in Airplane mode.

I looked into renting a Garmin GPS, but from reading other users posts it seems that there's plenty of iPhone apps out there that can get the job done.

Just looking for some background/experiences on apps others have used and what they found to be best

[ClimbingFool]

Gaia GPS and the 14ers.com apps work well for me.

[jrbren_vt]

I like Gaia GPS and occasionally All Trails. I like that the All Trails app barks at me if I wander off the route too far. Watch your battery life, in the last several trips my phone has been losing battery life too fast for my taste, so I carry a back country charger for extra life. My IPhone (13 pro) says Gaia GPS has been the primary user of battery charge. It didn't do this last year. Most of my hikes are 7-10 hours or so. After 6-7 hours I am down to 20% battery or less when starting at 100%.

[LetsGoMets]

Gaia is all you need as far as iPhone GPS mapping goes.

[CaptainSuburbia]

I like Gaia GPS and occasionally All Trails. I like that the All Trails app barks at me if I wander off the route too far. Watch your battery life, in the last several trips my phone has been losing battery life too fast for my taste, so I carry a back country charger for extra life. My IPhone (13 pro) says Gaia GPS has been the primary user of battery charge. It didn't do this last year. Most of my hikes are 7-10 hours or so. After 6-7 hours I am down to 20% battery or less when starting at 100%.

Do you put your phone in airplane mode? Gaia barely drains my battery.

[nsaladin]

Earthmate or Garmin explore if you have an Inreach device. If you don’t have a Inreach device, one of them allows for this without a device.

[HikerGuy]

I like CalTopo.

[jrbren_vt]

I like Gaia GPS and occasionally All Trails. I like that the All Trails app barks at me if I wander off the route too far. Watch your battery life, in the last several trips my phone has been losing battery life too fast for my taste, so I carry a back country charger for extra life. My IPhone (13 pro) says Gaia GPS has been the primary user of battery charge. It didn't do this last year. Most of my hikes are 7-10 hours or so. After 6-7 hours I am down to 20% battery or less when starting at 100%.

Do you put your phone in airplane mode? Gaia barely drains my battery.

Yes, Airplane mode & low power mode. In any case, in settings, you can ask the Iphone OS who has been draining the power. It says >90% of the power drain is from Gaia GPS. It is possible somewhere along the way I unwittingly put Gaia in some mode that drains excessive power. If it bothers me enough I will contact Gaia product support. They were very good and quick response when I asked them about another issue where my phone would not sync up with the Gaia website, it thought my phone was not connected to the internet when it was.

[Skimo95]

2,000mi and over 1/2 million gain using AllTrails with minimum issues. I keep my Garmin for a main/backup depending on the trip. You’re able to download 3rd party gpx into AllTrails which is useful. Other friends have had luck with FATMAP, Gaia, and others.

[BillMiddlebrook]

You are already here. If you’re simply looking for a mapping app to use when hiking 14ers, just use the 14ers.com app. Seriously, I’ve tried to incorporate everything 14er-route related in it. You’ll have the latest route descriptions with photos, 14er route lines on the map, current peak conditions, trailhead status updates and much more. And if you want to track your hike along the way, you can do that as well.

Now, if your looking for a more sophisticated mapping app, I recommend GAIA. Easy to use. You just won’t have all the 14er stuff and will have to import gpx files.

I do not recommend AllTrails. I’ve seen a ton of incorrect info in that app and you won’t get nearly as many 14er-specific tools that I’ve included in the .com app.

[kwhit24]

My buddy and I have been using Gaia of years and years now and it works great. When you upload GPX track just know that Gaia typically whos a shorter distance that it actually is in my experience. I always put the GPX track into CalTopo on the computer before we leave to get a better idea of distance and elevation

Other apps even though I don't use them often:
- Caltopo (you can still view the slope shading on the app)
- OnX Backcountry (seems to be getting more popular. Maybe it's just influencers. but they have a lot of layers)
- AllTrails (No for high country but I use it all the time in early season lower elevations hikes especially for trail conditions)
- Hiking Project (I sometimes use this for research but you can track with it. I don't think it's very user-friendly but I like researching multiple apps/sites)
- Garmin Fenix ( I could upload a GPX track to it and try to follow on watch but never have)

TL;DR - Gaia for App, CalTopo on Comp