Hema Explorer North America Now Available

The app is available for $19.99 (USD) on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, and on Google Play for Android smartphones and tablets. Combining multiple map sources with intuitive tools for planning, navigating and sharing trips, Hema Explorer is the ultimate off-road navigation app for North America.

Hema Explorer for North America utilises features tried and tested in Australia by thousands of travellers, delivering a simple user interface and a suite of content and functions designed for adventure travellers. Trip planning is easy using Hema Explorer: quickly and easily generate a route to a destination using Quick Routing, download multiple map sources for the trip, drop and name waypoints to mark locations ahead of time, and use folders to collate all of your trip data.

Once your journey begins, you can track your adventure in real-time using offline mapping in combination with your mobile device’s inbuilt GPS receiver. Hema Explorer gives you access to a wide range of topographic, street and other map sources: the Hema US Road Map, which includes coast-to-coast touring mapping, USGS Topo, USGS 7.5, Thunderforest Outdoors, HERE Street, Aerial and Terrain mapping, as well as Canada Topo and Canada Street mapping.

While you’re exploring, you can capture every highlight of your journey by recording your track log, taking geotagged photos and writing notes about your trip. Then, register for a free Hema Explorer Cloud account to keep a backup of your trip data online, and to be a part of an active community of 4x4 and overland explorers. The Hema Explorer Cloud is a trail database powered by Hema Explorer app users, where you can share your adventures with other app users, download other people’s tracks to use on your own trips, and automatically sync and backup all your trip data from your mobile device.

Over the past year Hema’s North American expedition vehicle, a BJ74 LandCruiser, has been driving some of the United States’ classic overland routes and recording the trips using Hema Explorer. Available now to view on the Hema Explorer Cloud, these include trails along the Arizona Traverse, California’s Mojave Road, Colorado’s Alpine Loop and more through the South West. These trips represented an ideal testing ground for Hema Explorer’s content and functionality, and served as a precursor to an even bigger North American expedition: traversing the Continental Divide by 4x4.

The Continental Divide, a largely mountainous divide that is North America’s most defining geological feature, has been enticing all kinds of explorers for generations. Hema’s intended route, which it will navigate using Hema Explorer, stretches from New Mexico to the Arctic Circle, covering 6,200 miles across everything from basic dirt roads to technical mountainous terrain, and will take our expedition vehicle and inclusive teams from sea level to above 13,000 feet through the highest trails in North America. The expedition vehicle in question is a diesel 200 Series LandCruiser brought over from Australia, which will be crewed by multiple field teams over the course of this five-month adventure in conjunction with Overland Journal & Expedition Portal. These teams will be recording the trip’s track logs, geotagged photos and waypoints using Hema Explorer, and then posting their trails directly to the Hema Explorer Cloud. The expedition will begin after Overland Expo West, which runs from May 20-22, at which Hema has a stand.

The release of Hema Explorer for North America and Hema’s ongoing exploration of the continent means 4x4 and overland enthusiasts can now plan, navigate and share their adventures with confidence. Now that it is available for both Australia and North America, Hema Explorer is set to become the app of choice for 4x4 and adventure navigation in the world’s two biggest markets. Download your copy today to become a part of a global community of adventure travellers and to start exploring off the beaten track.