You might notice that at the bottom of a lot of my posts, there are two numbers skulking about. Those are a location's geo-coordinates, and most GPS units will let you pop them in, so you can get to a place when an address might not be as easy for your GPS to decipher. Also, you can go to Google Maps and just paste the whole thing into the search bar, and the map will go right to that point.
If you want to find the coordinates of a place, it's easier than you think. Use Google Maps, either the map view or the satellite view, to find where you want to go. Zoom in as much as you can, all the way down to Street View (very handy) if you can. ( Click this link to see the entrance to the Basilica of Guadalupe parking garage for our example.) Near the top right of the map/view is a link marked "Link" -- click that and copy it (Control-C).
It will look something like this: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=212431441249480182881.000464b828fa2b4120bc7&ll=19.485639,-99.118395&spn=0,0.013089&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=19.485723,-99.118358&panoid=BWTpv_yuritJE9unotL3_g&cbp=12,144.23,,0,-4.86
It looks like a bunch of garbly-gook, but if you look carefully, you will see a set of numbers separated by a comma, which I've highlighted here. Inside a map link, there will never be another set of numbers that looks like that - xx.xxxxxx, -yy.yyyyyy. Those are your coordinates. The first number is your North coordinate, and the second (without the minus sign) is the West coordinate. The more decimal places that your GPS will let you use, the more accurate it will take you.
Happy exploring!
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