iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 03/06/2026

Took a lot of work, but we made it. 82-0.com

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 10/03/2026

I could not beat it, but I'm good with getting close.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 12/12/2025

One of the stranger peak names I’ve ever come across. Bus McGall??? What’s going on here, California?

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 19/11/2025

Let's keep the national park anniversaries rolling since we've got maps to show off! On this day in 1919, Zion became Utah's first national park. The landscape map from Raven's new Parklands series really shows off the dazzling mix of bare rock and forested highlands that set Zion apart.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 18/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 18 - Out of This World I made you a quiz. Seven geographic names from around the US, each representing one of our planetary neighbors. Can you match the planet to the numbered location on the map?

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 13/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 13: 10 Minute Map I will always default to shaded relief and mountains, so this one was an easy idea: make a beautiful, unlabeled map using Eduard. I wasted almost a quarter of my 10 minutes trying to pick some mountains. Glacier Peak worked out in the end.

The topography of Glacier Peak and its surroundings

Shaded relief created using Eduard

Chaney Swiney
#30DayMapChallenge, 2025

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 12/11/2025

On this day in 1971, Arches became a national park, so of course that means it's time to celebrate with a map! This is the landscape version of the park from Raven's new Parklands series. Like the Canyonlands map I shared before, this color is all derived from some heavily processed aerial imagery.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 12/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 12: Map from 2125 What if we just intentionally misread it as "Map from 21º, 25º" and then make all four variants?

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 12/11/2025

Aurora in Asheville! Missed it 18 months ago, but not this time.

A pink glow diffuses across the sky at the bottom of the frame, fading to a dark blue with pinpricks of starlight at the top. Tree branches reach into the image from all directions.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 11/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 11 - Minimal Map Made this series a while ago, simple views of lakes around Central Oregon. Tough to pick a favorite, but I sure do love Sparks Lake. I like the understated bathymetric shading and the faint contour lines on land. And the lake stats. Love some lake stats.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 11/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 10 - Air One of my favorite pages to build for Benchmark's Alaska Atlas was this page all about transportation in the state. A big focus of the map and guide was regular air service to the more remote communities, showing all the airports and estimates of flight durations.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 11/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 9 - Analog I've never done much in the way of hand-drawn maps, but there was a time when I was trying to insert them into my notebooks where I was recording different adventures. Here's two from a winter camping trip at Lassen Volcanic National Park.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 11/11/2025

Playing catch up on the #30DayMapChallenge with some pre-existing maps to fit the themes... 8 - Urban I work on a lot of smaller scale maps with less urban focus. Here's two looks at some newer Raven maps: Minnesota and Japan. We went with red for built-up areas in Japan but chose gray for MN.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 07/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 7: Accessibility I like the idea of remote spots: the points furthest from a road in a given area. A few years ago, I figured out what I think that point is in TN ahead of a trip on the AT through the Smokies. Trip got cancelled, but the spot's still out there...

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 06/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 6: Dimensions Why not make a new Peakscape and lean into the dimension of depth? This is the first that isn't built only using a DEM. There's elevation data in there for the middleground and the La Sal Mtns, but Delicate Arch is pulled from one of my photos. What a landscape!

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 05/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 5: Earth Repurposing some maps *and* doing some shameless self-promotion here. These are crops from the shaded relief for the new Parklands prints from Raven. Cover the bottom left corner if you want to try guessing the park just from the terrain! See the full lineup here.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 04/11/2025

I just misread this as "Cold Gross Peak" and now I really wish that was its name.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 04/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 4: My Data The latest update to my county map, my long term project tracking every county I've ever been in. Only two new ones of late, down on the NC coast around Wilmington. Closing in on 40% overall, and if I could get to Asotin County, WA I'd have three states filled in.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 03/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 3: Polygons I am a sucker for good place names, and I will use them to bend a category to my will. Here are four selected summits around the US with polygonal names.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 02/11/2025

#30DayMapChallenge Day 2: Lines GPS tracks from 6 years of annual backpacking trips. Well… really 5 years. That 2024 line from the Smokies was just a big day trip, all we could squeeze in before Hurricane Helene. We thought we were picking the driest time of year, but it ended up being the wettest!

Graphic showing simple line maps of six backpacking trips with orange dots showing campsites.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 01/11/2025

It’s November, so it’s time for the #30DayMapChallenge! 1: Points Took a low res DEM, turned it into points, colored them with a Raven-style hypso ramp, and made Crater Lake blue. Kinda looks like a Lite Brite.

Mostly green map of Crater Lake National Park. The lake is blue, the other colors correspond to elevations with dark green for lowest and oranges and whites for highest.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 29/10/2025

Everything balances out. If there's a Big Rock Candy Mountain, then there's gotta be a...

Screenshot of a map with the label "Savory Mountain" in the middle.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 28/10/2025

Rain and wind are here to steal the colors from the mountains, but I've got receipts of what was there before.

Fall color in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Mt Pisgah stands in the background, its color well past peak. In the foreground, a forested ridge shows off the reds, oranges, and yellows of autumn.

Orange and yellow trees blanket the mountainsides.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 23/10/2025

Look at those colors. Autumn is moving downslope in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and it's going quick.

forested mountainside, ablaze in autumn hues of red, yellow, orange, and brown. A few green trees still dot the canopy.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 22/10/2025

Another new Raven map was released yesterday alongside all those pretty park maps: the Caribbean Sea. Classic elevation tints and some wonderful shaded relief. That bathymetry is just so pretty... #caribbean #map #bathymetry #shadedrelief www.ravenmaps.com/caribbean-se...

Map of the Caribbean Sea. On land, green shows low areas while oranges and whites show higher elevations. In the water, light blue signifies the shallows while darker blues illustrate the deepest trenches.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 21/10/2025

There's a brand new series of prints available from Raven Maps & Images: Parklands. These were a blast to work on! We've got sixteen parks in two styles each. I'll fawn over the details of individual parks later. #nationalparks www.ravenmaps.com/parklands.html

map of Canyonlands National Park, colored with hues inspired by the natural landscape

map of Grand Teton National Park, colored with hypsometric tints to reflect elevations (green for low, yellow and orange for mid, white for high)

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 21/10/2025

So I guess that's where he lives?

Screenshot of a map, centered on a feature labeled "Grant Hill"

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 01/10/2025

The highest peak in the east, looking nice with a little fall color mixing in among the spruce and fir. #mtmitchell #northcarolina #blackmountains

The summit of Mt Mitchell in North Carolina, seen from Mt Craig. Clouds float in a blue sky, grazing the high elevation conifer forests with yellows and oranges mixed in as the deciduous trees begin to lose their leaves.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 17/09/2025

Too many pickles? Want to save them for later? You need a...

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 12/09/2025

Are you a horse? Need a place to just kick back and rest for a while? Try a...

Screenshot of a map with the label "Horse Hammock" in black

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 28/08/2025

Playing with Peakscapes again. This one will always one of my favorites because it was the one where I dialed in the sunset look. The colors of a day ending in the Southern Appalachians can be pretty spectacular. www.ravenmaps.com/mm5/merchant...

"Peakscape" showing the Black Mountains in North Carolina. Summits are labeled with names and elevations. Colors run in a gradient of darker to lighter purple on the landscape under a sky of pink and orange.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 19/08/2025

The original photo, for reference. Taken on Mt Bachelor in 2017. I'd seen this individual the night before and knew I'd be back in the same area the next day. Thankfully, our paths crossed again.

A Sierra Nevada red fox with gray, brown, and black fur stares in to the camera with orange eyes. She is stepping across the snow the covers the forest floor.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 19/08/2025

Got an email from a wildlife researcher at Sequoia & Kings Canyon a few weeks ago asking to use on of my Sierra Nevada red fox photos on a patch. The finished product came in the mail today, and it looks sweet! Gotta figure out a good place to put this thing.

Circular patch with a red, orange, black, and white color scheme. A fox’s face is centered in the design, surrounded by red and black circles. The text reads “SEQUOIA KINGS CANYON WILDLIFE 2025”

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 19/08/2025

Pictures can't convey just how good the Wallowas were a few weeks ago, but let's try anyway.

Late light in the upper reaches of the East Fork Wallowa River watershed. Wildflowers bloom in the rocks in the foreground. Sunlight washes over the forested knolls and meadows beyond, and the craggy spine of Bonneville Mountain rises beneath dark clouds.

A hiker stands on an alpine ridge line with green vegetation covering the flanks to the left and red rocks to the right. Puffy clouds billow in the skies over multicolored mountains still clinging to their snow in mid summer.

A creek flows out of a high lake, fringed by vegetation and bright marble rock. A mountain summit catches the first light of day in the background, and yellows and pinks infuse the light cloud cover.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 24/07/2025

#Yellowstone brochure map from 1980. Looks a lot different from the modern NPS style, but those colors are great!

Map of Yellowstone National Park. Green is land, blue is water, red is roads. Yellowstone Lake sits near the center of the image.

Closeup of the Canyon Area detail map. No shaded relief here.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 21/07/2025

I know it's named after one of the original park rangers at Glacier. It's still an unfortunate name.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 25/06/2025

He's a canonically big dude, so it makes sense that his estate stretches from Washington to Montana to Utah.

Paul Bunyans Cabin
775115 • Summit • Flathead County - Montana
Details History Pin

Paul Bunyans Potty
1450461 • Arch • San Juan County - Utah
Details History Pin

Paul Bunyans Stump
1524257 • Summit • Whatcom County - Washington
Details History Pin

Paul Bunyans Woodpile
1431143 • Woods • Juab County - Utah
Details History Pin

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 24/06/2025

How have I missed this on the maps before?

Screenshot of a topo map centered on a feature labeled "Paul Bunyans Potty"

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 20/06/2025

Time for a #map quiz: can you identify this landscape just from the shading and elevation tinting?

Shaded relief with hypsometric tinting to show elevation. Green is low, orange is mids, and white is the highest.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 20/06/2025

Oh hey, Peakscapes are a whole Raven Maps product line now! Got to build a couple dozen more in addition to the original set I developed a few years ago. Hopefully there are more to come. Goodness knows there's plenty more mountains to focus on! www.ravenmaps.com/peakscapes.h...

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 19/06/2025

Stoked to finally get a printed copy of this one: the second edition of our Yellowstone & Grand Teton atlas. More to showcase here, but my favorite new things were the detail maps (like Old Faithful) and the addition of thermal areas on the Landscape Maps.

A hand holds an 8.5x11 inch book titled Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks Road & Recreation Atlas

Atlas open on a table. Map of the Old Faithful area on the left, listings and photos on the right. The photos are mine.

Closeup of the Norris area in Yellowstone, with red type and a red tint showing thermal areas on the landscape.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 18/06/2025

Three years ago today was Day 1 of a #California field check near Mt Shasta, scoping out lava tubes and ending the day with views of Castle Crags and Black Butte.

A guy in a yellow shirt (me) stands on a lava arch, leftover from a collapsed lava tube. The rock is dark gray and black. Green conifers rise over the jumble of rocks.

A double-humped gray summit rises behind layers of ridges cloaked in green vegetation. This is Black Butte, a small and extinct volcano on the flanks of Mt Shasta.

A gray rocky trail winds through green vegetation. A lone fir tree rises on the right. Craggy gray rocks rise in a massif in the distance, with sharp spires and patches of forest on their slopes. The sky is overcast.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 12/06/2025

These mountains are supposedly named after the highest peak's resemblance to an owl's head, but come on... the whole range looks like an owl's facial disk with the two dry lakes as its eyes. It's uncanny.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 12/06/2025

Somehow I'd never seen the park map for Dry Tortugas, and man I've been missing out! Worth exploring on your own: www.nps.gov/media/photo/...

Map of Dry Tortugas National Park. There's so much on here and I never know how to do alt text for a map. The blue is the water, the yellow polygon is the park boundary, and there's a lot more to it.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 02/06/2025

Made some friends in the Smokies.

Black-chinned red salamander on the forest floor. Leaves decay around it while two sprigs of green rise above the detritus, one over the salamander's head. The salamander is a bright red color with black eyes, black dots along its back, and a black chin.

A dusky salamander (genus Desmognathus), probably a black-bellied? It sits on a mossy rock by a stream. The salamander is brown overall with intricate stipple patterns of black, gold, and orange along its sides.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 29/05/2025

Another new Raven map: the Galápagos Islands. I've never been here, but it was fun to dream about it while working on this one. Fascinating landscapes, and some interesting bathymetry below the ocean's surface. bit.ly/4mIz5HM

Map of the Galápagos Islands. Hypsometric tints color the islands to show elevation, with greens being the lowest and oranges the highest. A similar treatment is applied to the ocean, with light blue areas showing shallower water and dark blue showing deeper water.

A portion of Isla Isabela in the Galápagos Islands. Hypsometric tints color the islands to show elevation, with greens being the lowest and oranges the highest. A similar treatment is applied to the ocean, with light blue areas showing shallower water and dark blue showing deeper water. Peaks and other physical features are labeled.

Isla Santa Cruz and Isla Santa Fe in the Galápagos Islands. Hypsometric tints color the islands to show elevation, with greens being the lowest and oranges the highest. A similar treatment is applied to the ocean, with light blue areas showing shallower water and dark blue showing deeper water. Peaks and other physical features are labeled.

isla San Cristóbal in the Galápagos Islands. Hypsometric tints color the islands to show elevation, with greens being the lowest and oranges the highest. A similar treatment is applied to the ocean, with light blue areas showing shallower water and dark blue showing deeper water. Peaks and other physical features are labeled.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 27/05/2025

The "problem" with countries is sometimes they have outlying islands that don't fit in the scope of the main map. Raven Maps are generally neatline-free with lots of empty space around the focal area. So you get to come up with an interesting way to do an inset that still fits the overall look.

Map of Isla del Coco, surrounded by a faint blue glowing circle to show that it's an inset, plus text describing its location, all in an attempt to convey that this is not where the island actually sits in relation to mainland Costa Rica.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 27/05/2025

I gotta be better about sharing the stuff I've been working on. It's cool stuff! Example A: this brand new map of Costa Rica for Raven Maps. Classic Raven hypso look for elevations, now for a country instead of a state. bit.ly/3SqlWFk

Wall map of Costa Rica with hypsometric tinting. Green shows low elevation, yellows and oranges are mid elevations, and white shows the highest peaks.

Section of a wall map of Costa Rica with hypsometric tinting. Green shows low elevation, yellows and oranges are mid elevations, and white shows the highest peaks. San Jose is near the center of the image.

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Chaney Swiney @chaneyswiney.com · 22/05/2025

An *extremely* alluring destination for a backpacker who also likes to bird.

A map features labeled Pipit Lake, Lark Pond, Bluebird Lake, Junco Lake, and Ouzel Peak. These features are in Rocky Mountain National Park.

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