I can view an area in terrain view, but it's difficult to tell change in elevation. Is it possible to to get\add contour lines to show gradual or steep elevation changes?

Hi jccampbell16,

:welcome: to the forum!

Would importing a collection of mountain passes into Streets & Trips help?

Maybe, if it shows contour lines when zooming into within 1 kilometer. How do I import these?

jcampbell,
I don't think there is a way to show a true topographic map in Streets & Trips (only the "terrain" view). Have you looked into using National Geographic's TOPO! program. They use real USGS topo maps, and while you can't "route" in it, it will show GPS position and will draw a track. The State series goes from 1:500,000 down to 1:24,000 scale.
http://www.natgeomaps.com/topo_state

What are you using contour maps for on a laptop? Trip planning or "in the field"? I use my handheld Garmin GPS 60CSx for hiking and camping which has the Garmin Topo 2008 maps loaded.

Larry, where is the "mountain passes" file?

The one I used was from the CD from: The Best Collection of Mapping Points Of Interest For The RVer That You Can Find Anywhere

Thanks Larry! Looks like the package costs $45, so I guess I'll "pass".

:-) yes - $45 may be steep for just mountains but the CD also included some excellent collections that surpass anything you can find for free in terms of detail of information.