How to find the approximate locations of geocaches near your planting spots:

1) go to www.geocaching.com
Note that I'm doing this "logged in", so I'm not sure that you can do this without being logged in, but I'll bet you can't. Being a "member" of geocaching.com doesn't cost anything and there are no privacy concerns.

2) Enter the 5-digit ZIP code of the area
This is in the upper right corner of the page.

3) Click the MAP IT icon
Once the results appear, this icon will be in the upper right corner of the page.

4) Click "View Results in Google Maps (beta)"
This link appears directly above the goecaching.com map that will appear.

5) Explore!
If, when the Google map appears, there are "No Search Results" displayed, zoom out until the little balloons appear. Grab the map with your "hand" and move it so a balloon of interest is centered in the square, then zoom in to see the approximate location of the geocache.

I keep saying and highlighting "approximate" because the accuracy of the Google map is not 100%.

The cool thing with this is, you can switch to Hybrid or Satellite mode and get a real good idea of where these things are, especially if you're familiar enough with the area and can recognize certain landmarks from the air and translate that info to ground-level identification.

6) Read the Cache Details.
There may be written hints to the exact location or hiding spot so you will know where NOT to plant... or where TO look, if you're interested

StarSAELS

IMPORTANT NOTE:

The Satellite photos on Google Maps.com are at least 5 years old.

For an up-to-date view of the location, if it's that important to you, do this:

1) On the cache details page, click "Convert to NAD27 at Jeeep.com"

2) In a separate window (or tab) open mapquest.com... then...
a) click on the Maps icon...
b) under the "enter as much as you know" fields, click on "Map by Lat/Long"...
c) copy the DEC DEG values from the Jeeep.com page to the mapquest page...
d) click search...
e) switch to Aerial Photo...
f) zoom in as far as you can!

2) I have a nested box I want to plant. Where you have to find one box to get the clue to find the other. They are located in the same general area but I am unsure of how to register both boxes on AQ as one is nested into the other but both could count as finds.

This is what is known as a Bonus Box.

-amanda from seattle

For an example, look up the Oakwood Cemetery box in statesville NC.

The clues are not on AQ for the bonus box, but rather, they are written in the original box's logbook on the front or back page.

Quote

The Satellite photos on Google Maps.com are at least 5 years old.

I noticed this a few weeks ago when I was playing around with one of the maps.

I was at work and tried to find the school building on googlemaps. All it showed was a big field. I thought that was pretty bad since I've been working here for 4 years! (Maybe the building is just a figment of my imagination. That would explain why it gets so cold in my office in the winter.)

Many maps come with the basic coordinates already printed on the edges. Look up the coordinates at geocaching.com and then check a map where your box is planted...and you can at least determine if one is anywhere near you..like within a 1/4 mile, depending on the map.

If you find one is within a 1/4 mile, I would try to find it and/or contact the placer and coordinate a way you can live in harmony. That's what we try to do here in NY..where there are 100 geocaches for every letterbox.

LW

I read the whole thing too!

For the nested boxes, I did a series of four the same way. http://www.atlasquest.com/lboxes/showboxinfo.html?gBoxId=29072 The clue only leads to one, which has a clue to the second, which has a clue..... etc. When listing the box, I stated that there were 4 boxes and AQ automatically asked me the names of all of them.

It shows 4 finds, where the Pyratemates found all of them. Maybe this will work for you... maybe not.

Tee

There are over 300 Geocaches within 5 miles of my house. Most of these are micros and in VERY urban areas so no worries about those. We've decided to cross those off our lists and only seek caches that are at least in parks or areas that we'd like to put letterboxes in. This weekend we found a great spot for a box inside a park that had a cache outside of it.