How did you make the California geography image? It looks wonderful and I'd like to do similar things for other states.
Hi,
I used a software called Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) to make the map. The elevation surface is from a dataset called SRTM30Plus. The shoreline, lakes and rivers are from a database that's included in GMT.
So essentially with just GMT and the SRTM30Plus elevation data you'd be quite far into making such maps, although there's probably something of a learning curve if you've never done such things. Both GMT and SRTM30Plus are free.
I added the map legend and the geographical names into the otherwise ready map using a generic graphics program.
I've been also meaning to do similar maps for other US states, but that's become buried under other activities...J.S.Salonen (talk) 10:50, 28 November 2008 (UTC)