You can always use the aetherial compass in your key items to get a direction and range. Sadly, it does not tell you up or down, relative to your position on the map's Z-axis. The location based nodes are supposed to be along the path you normally take while going through the MSQ's in the zones, and that seemed to be the case when I went through Dravanian Hinterlands. I'd suggest looking around instead of just tunnel visioning as you run and keep your compass ready.