Google Maps leads dozens of drivers into muddy open field, stranding them

DENVER, Colo. - Several drivers hoping Google Maps would help them avoid a traffic jam on a main road in Denver found themselves eventually driving off the beaten path into an open field filled with ditches.

Connie Monsees said she was on her way to pick up her husband when she hit horrible traffic on the main road to Denver International Airport.

"I pulled up my Google Maps to see if there was some way to get around the mess because it showed there was a wreck and sure enough, yes, I could take the next exit," said Monsees.

She said it would've taken her 47 minutes to get the terminal if she would have waited out the traffic, but the detour said it would only take 23 minutes.

While Monsees was looking forward to the prospect of picking up her husband on time, it wasn't long before she found herself driving on a dirt road, and she wasn't alone.

"There were a whole bunch of other cars though, and so I thought, 'Oh OK, here we go, it should be OK.'"

"There was probably 100 cars out there," she added.

"The thing that was bad though was that we had had rain for the last three days, and it was pretty consistent rain, and so it was a mess out there," said Monsees.

Once she and the other drivers found themselves out in the field, "there was no turning around."

Monsees said she didn't want to turn around because the road was only wide enough for one car and didn't want to get stuck.

She eventually trudged along the path meeting two people who were also headed to the airport who if they could hitch a ride with her.

Along with the muddy road that caused some cars to get stuck, they came upon two ditches that her trusty all-wheel Hyundai Santa Fe was able to slowly drive through.

They eventually made it to the airport with her stowaway passengers able to make their flights on time.

Monsees seemed to have a good attitude about the whole incident, even laughing as she recounted her expedition through the muddy field over ditches and eventually to pick her husband up at the airport.

"From the time I left my house to the time I got home, it took me three-and-a-half hours," said Monsees.

She says she'd still use Google Maps even after a fiasco like this. "I will use it again. It's so rare that it messes me up anymore."

"There is no way that Google could have known that that was the situation out there."