I should also add that I've been a big geology nut my whole life - this area in particular. My Dad was a well driller in the lower Columbia region and I was always going along gathering my own "core samples," ...etc. Kid scientist shit, but I never outgrew it.

But the map really does make it all pop out; state lines are and political maps are so much less interesting.

I have this desire to touch it -- perhaps printed on a 20" x 20" aluminum sheet? Yeah probably.

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Daaang this is rad, I also want a print of this

Yup. On par with a tattered flag being flown along with a service branch flag. A house in my neighborhood had an American flag way worse than this flying above an immaculate Marine Corp flag. Pissed me off so much.

Awesome :) Fantasy map making is another hobby of mine.

This is the exact emotion I want to convey with my maps and why I like to do watersheds! We're all part of some amazing inter-connecting system that most people never even realize. Thank you!

This is so cool. Your work always amazes me. It’s astonishing how much larger this river basin is compared to the states it occupies (or that occupy it). For example all of WA state except the Puget Sound Basin and the Olympic Peninsula comprises maybe a forth of the Columbia River Basin. Thanks so much for posting.

Anyone else see a cartoon dog's head outline from 2 different angles?

I'm on the Snake. I can relate :)

Very, very cool

Awesome picture

This inspired me to go back and touch up the rivers in my fantasy world building map

Oh man... this is Amazing. I live in the Tri-Cities. Absolutely a suburb around nothing and pretty isolated feeling.

But I can see on this map that I am actually right in the middle of an amazing system.

Just realized Okanagan lake and lake Chelan take a weirdly similar path. Really cool.

For this one I used the USGS 1 Arc Second dataset which gives about 30m resolution. The GEBCO dataset is also a good option.

Raven Maps does stellar work and are one of my inspirations. They balance traditional cartography and art perfectly! One thing I'd like to add to my maps in the future is labeling which they do very well.

PS - I like your username. I identify with it a little too much sometimes!

That’s a relief! They were looking much too bare this summer!

lol, we got about an inch yesterday and it melted off by the time I went to lunch

For second I thought you spelled Colombia wrong and then I realized it's not the country. It's just very similar shape.

I saw the links to Blender tutorials on your post of this map in r/MapPorn. What dataset(s) did you use, if you don't mind saying?

Raven Maps is my standard for where cartography intersects aesthetics. You're definitely getting there.

Thanks!

This is fantastic

Thanks! Glad you like it :)

The short answer is aesthetics.

The longer answer is its a technique found in a lot of older maps which maximizes the area of interest (in this case the Columbia River Watershed). By letting portions of the area of interest hang over the edge of the map, you can increase the scale without adding a ton of additional white space.

As did I!

Check the OP's profile, there's a link to a shop.