Garmin eTrex Legend

Specs

The GPS that outlived its era

The original eTrex line launched around 2000, and the eTrex Legend added a basemap and more memory a short time later. It was small, yellow and blue, and cheap enough that a lot of hikers bought one as their first GPS.

Two decades later, a surprising number of them still work. Garmin built these to be dropped, rained on, and forgotten in a glovebox.

Real-world use today

A phone does most of what an eTrex Legend did, and does it better. So why do people still carry one?

• Geocaching. The eTrex family is still common in the hobby. Enter coordinates, follow the arrow, find the box.
• Backcountry backup. It works with no cell signal and no data plan. When the phone dies, the eTrex keeps going.
• Battery logistics. Two AA batteries are easy to swap in the field. You can't do that with a phone.
• Simple tracking. Leave it in a pack and it records a track log of where you went.

Battery and durability

Garmin rated the Legend at about 18 hours on two AA batteries. Lithium AAs push that further and handle cold weather better than alkalines.

It is rated IPX7, meaning it survives brief submersion. The rubber side grips can peel with age, and the screen can scratch, but the internals are famously sturdy.

Limits to know about

• The screen. It's a small monochrome LCD at 160 × 288. Readable in sun, not great for detailed maps.
• Basic maps. The built-in basemap shows major roads and features. Detailed topo maps need old Garmin MapSource software and limited 8 MB of storage.
• Reception. Older receivers struggle under heavy tree cover and in canyons compared with modern high-sensitivity chips.
• Connecting to a computer. It uses an old serial cable. You will need a serial-to-USB adapter, and some modern software no longer supports it.

Later Legend models

If you like the idea but want fewer compromises, look at the later variants:

• eTrex Legend C / Cx: color screen; the Cx adds microSD.
• eTrex Legend H / HCx: high-sensitivity receiver for much better reception; the HCx adds color and microSD.

These usually cost a bit more used but are far more practical today.

Community sentiment

The eTrex has a loyal following in geocaching and backpacking forums. Owners talk about it the way people talk about old Toyota pickups: not fancy, never quits.

• Good at the basics. Owners on Expedition Portal describe it as fine for saving coordinates, marking campsites and turnoffs, and recording a breadcrumb trail (thread).
• Weak under trees. The same thread notes the low-sensitivity receiver can lose lock under canopy or in a pocket, and can take a couple of minutes to reacquire.
• Maps are the real limit. With very little memory and no microSD slot, you can fit maybe one or two topo tiles. One owner keeps theirs in a survival kit as a backup to paper maps.
• Old cables, still solvable. The Geocaching Forums still host threads on getting serial-cable eTrex Legends to talk to modern computers (thread).
• Old eTrex units still hit the trail. Hikers on Walkhighlands still carry older eTrex models on hill walks; the common gripes are a slow first fix after long storage and hard-to-find cables and software (thread).

What it sells for

The original eTrex Legend is cheap. Across about 100 eBay sales from July to October 2026, the middle half went for $20 to $30, with a median of about $25. At that price it is an easy impulse buy for a geocaching backup.

Where to buy

Prices change often. Check the current price before buying. Some links are affiliate links, which never change our verdicts.

FAQ