Learning to read a True Topo map for scouting purposes is a much better method if you haven't been there. It's easy to read an airial photo once you've been on the ground, but I think they're pretty useless as far as seeing terrain features and changes. And once you've walked the ground, the photos are not that important except for showing someone where you'll be etc. Even vegetation is tough to read from so far up. I really prefer a true TOPO. They're all just starting points for actual ground travel, but going in cold I'd feel a whole lot better with a topo than a photo.