I am quite willing to pass up the last mile or two of distance, if it means that I can land near a flagpole, pond, burning leaves, drying laundry, or a vehicle's dust trail. I fly for FUN.
If I really have no idea about the surface winds I'll pick the biggest place to land that I can find. Just fly to the exact center of the field, and start doing smooth, consistent-bank 360s. The wind will take me (still circling) to the downwind end of the field. Just roll out level on a short baseleg, and then aim for the center of the field. If I started the 360s too high, or didn't lose much altitude, I might go back to the center, and start over with a few more 360s. Any time you get down to approach altitude, stop circling and begin your DBF approach.
If canyons are nearby, be aware that canyons can drain cool air out onto the flats in the evening, and surface winds may be coming from the mouth of the canyon, independent of everything else which you saw that day.
Some crop-duster pilots carry a hand-sized piece of heavy corrugated cardboard, wrapped with a l-o-n-g streamer material (toilet tissue: the cheaper, the tougher, the better for this purpose). Some of these "drop-streamers" are one color at the cardboard end, and the rear half is white. You would need to drop it from a high enough altitude to give it time to unfurl completely, and low enough for it to land where you will. Make your approach from the white end. In light winds, it may just land in a useless little pile. In strong winds, you'll just lose it (and you should not need it then, anyway)