The world of modern technology has made it fairly simple to locate the best secret spots to go camping, fishing and hunting. Using Google Earth and a Garmin eTrex GPS unit, anyone can research and locate pristine outdoor adventure spots using these high-tech scouting techniques. Instead of driving to unknown locations and spending thousands of hours stomping around in the woods, you can now view every square mile of your favorite mountain, desert, stream, lake or hunting unit from the ease and comfort of your home computer.
Download a free copy of Google Earth from Google.com/earth. Google Earth is a very cool and useful satellite imaging tool that will allow you to explore any adventure spot in the world. It may take several minutes to download a free copy of Google Earth, but it is worth the wait. Open the program and zoom into promising camping areas to begin searching for secret fishing and hunting spots that are hidden deep in the forest.
Select a remote location to begin exploring to find secret fishing or hunting spots that others do not know about. Satellite images make this process easy for those who take the time to look. The tops of hills and mountains are prime locations. Most people will not make the effort to climb to a higher elevation to see what is at the top of the hill, but using Google Earth, users can investigate every hilltop for miles with a few mouse clicks. Search for stock tanks and lakes by looking for dark circles. Look for grassy pastures that are hidden deep in the middle of the forest where no one can see them from the road. The best camping, fishing and hunting spots will have a combination of water, trees, protected green pastures and a hillside that overlooks the area. These features provide food, water and bedding areas that will attract many types of wildlife such as deer, elk and turkeys.
Locate a good spot, put the cursor on top of it, hold down the shift key and then move the cursor around. This makes the satellite image spin and tilt, which will show the elevation and the easiest hiking paths to reach the intended location. For example, if the mountain lake is on the back side of a high ridge, the satellite image can be tilted to find the lowest and easiest mountain pass or saddle in the ridge to travel through. Watch closely as the mouse cursor travels over the trails, roads, mountains, lakes and grassy meadows. At the bottom in the middle of the screen, the GPS coordinates will be displayed like this: lat: 34.427367, lon: -111.086919. These GPS coordinates are called waypoints. GPS units have several types of settings: decimal, degrees and seconds. Make sure that Google Earth and your GPS unit are synchronized to use the same format. The GPS waypoint above is in decimal format.
Place the mouse cursor on the secret fishing or hunting spot, and then write down the waypoints for each one. Also make sure to include the GPS waypoints for each turn that leads from the main highway to the side roads to the various dirt roads that you need to travel to reach the secret place. Know the GPS waypoints for every turn on the way to the planned destination so you don't get lost in the woods. There are many twists, turns and unmarked dirt roads in the woods that are not printed on any map. Instead of guessing which way to go and getting lost, high-tech explorers using a GPS unit will know their exact location, how far it is to the next turn as well as the location of the final destination.
