Vacation Idea #4 ~ Geocaching

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- Vacation Idea #4 -
Geo Caching

Geo caching is a new, fun, high-teck sport that gets the family outside and exercising!
A little like a treasure hunt
and sometimes a lot like a
wild goose chase,
this sport has mega memory making built in.

How its played: Small boxes loaded with small trinkets are hidden by geocachers in public locations. The latitude and longitude of the box locations are recorded using a handheld gps and then logged into geocaching.com. Other geocachers then use these latitude and longitude recordings to find the treasures. This sport is played in every state. There are so many geocaches that there is a good chance you have unwittingly walked right past a few of them.

To play you will need: 1. A handheld gps. They are different than the ones you use to find directions in a car. These tell you latitude and longitude of where you are standing right now and will point you in the direction of the location you program in. The one in the photo above ran about $60 on e-bay, refurbished. A basic model in stores will run around $100. And some cell phones have a handheld navigation application you can download. Once you have a way to navigate this sport is nearly free. The only things you might shell out money for is gas and small trinkets to put in the geocaches. 2. You will need a account with geocaching.com. Their basic membership is free and all we have ever needed. Or you can upgrade to a premium membership, which offers some added features, for a minimal yearly fee. 3. Next search for caches in your area. And you will be amazed at how many are in your neighborhood. (seriously go there right now and type in your zip code, its funny.)


Once you have found a geocache you sign the log book in the cache. And then trade out some small trinkets or if you are lucky you will find a travel bug or coin.


Travel bugs and coins are small items with numbers that can be tracked through geocaching.com. Often the owner of the tracking item will give it a mission such as visiting mountain tops or traveling the world. Sometimes they will attach a story, or small personal trinket. My sons travel bug has made it across several state lines and is currently in a cache in Texas.

There are many creative twists on how people hide the caches, the one above was intended to be found at night. It was hidden with a trail of reflectors leading up to it. Most caches are sandwich sized tupperware containers or army ammo boxes, such as the one below.

Caches are hidden everywhere: nature walks, cemeteries, walmart parking lots, inside stores, at the bottom of lakes, on islands, in your neighborhood park, really anywhere.

And there seems to be no limit to the creativity used in hiding them. The one above was part of a multi cache. The first cache gave directions to the second and final cache.

We Incorporated geocaching into a vacation we took to another state. And by doing so found some amazing local attractions.

And when we came home we had to share geocaching with our extended family.

This was her first find.

This was her second.



This was my first find. Yes that is me, in the woods, without makeup, I don't normally look this granola! But I had to share the photo because this one was fun for me. I was the only one who understood the clue so I found it before everyone else!


This one was the best. I will give you a hint (one, we didn't have) he is holding the geocache.

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