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Google Earth Mis-led Us.
Google Earth mis-led us.
We had decided to look for an old survey mark (V 61 http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=GQ0058) on Saturday 5/7/2011. It is one that is off the beaten path so we did a little research since it only has scaled coordinates, which can be off by 1/10 of a mile or more. We looked at several maps. One was a Topo map that showed an old road that had been there. The other was Google Earth and it look like the old road would be plainly visible since it could easily be recognized in the satellite pictures.
The old road was going to be a major factor for finding this mark since the description said it was only 29 feet north of the centerline of the road and near a small rock pile.
We were driving along Hwy 64 at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and got close to where the coordinates said the mark would be. We found a decent area to pull off the highway and park the truck. The GPSr said we were less than a 1/4 mile from the disk. We headed off in the direction indicated and found it was an easy flat walk most of the way. When we got to within about 400 to 450 feet from the mark there was a moderate downhill slope to what appeared to be an old roadbed. It appeared to have had vehicles driven along it at sometime in the past. At first glance there was no small stone pile anywhere to be seen. We checked the GPSr and it said the mark was still quite away off. We followed the GPSr along and it said to go uphill for a while. We came to what appeared to be another roadbed, but somewhat less distinct. Again we looked for the rock pile and there was nothing to be seen. The GPSr said the mark was still about 120 feet away and still uphill. We went uphill and got to another flat area, but it didn't appear to be a roadbed as there was no evidence that anything could have driven here for a very long time. It was overgrown with small trees (most in the 2 to 3 inch diameter size).
We stopped to look the area over as this was where the GPSr said the mark should be. We spotted a small rock pile that was not very distinct, but more like a dozen or so rocks tossed together and not stacked up as you would expect for a "rock pile". They were on the edge of a limestone ledge, so we walked over and took a look.
There on the ledge was the disk we were looking for, it was slightly covered with a few pine needles, but it was easy to see it was the mark we were after.
We paced off 29 feet to the south and looked both east and west and decided this must have been the road that showed on Google Earth and the topo map. It was definitely not a well defined road.
Looking south towards the "road". 
Looking east along the "old road".
Looking west along the "old road".
The 2 things that made this find possible were the small "rock pile" and the "BM X" on the Topo map. The "X" was almost right on the money for this mark.
We celebrated our find by stopping at one of the little "picnic areas" along the highway and heated a pot of chili and and used Frito Scoops corn chips as spoons. The only things that needed cleaning when we were done, were the pot and the spoon that we used to stir the chili to keep it from burning to the bottom of the pot.
2oldfarts (the rockhounders)
We're from Northern AZ and have over 1000 benchmark recoveries. We have been GC members since 2003. We enjoy rockhounding and just being outdoors. We have a web site showing some of the great places we know about and have visited (coordinates included). http://myweb.cableone.net/rockhounders1/
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