Washington State Parks Centennial GeoTour

Washington State parks is 100 years old and Washington State Geo Caching is helping to celebrate.  There are 186 State parks in Washington (Here is a list of them)  and now there are a 100 new geo caches hidden in 100 of these parks.

So backing up a little bit… in case you do not know what geo caching is.  It is like treasure hunting,  you sign up online at www.geocaching.com   It is free to sign up you just need a user name to get started.  You will also need some sort of a gps, most smart phones have apps that work great unless you are hunting ones deep in the woods.  Once you are signed up you can search for caches ( hidden container) in your area. Each cache has gps coordinates to find it with.  You enter those coordinates into your gps ( or use the app on your phone ) and then you find the cache.  Once you find the cache there will be a log book in it… you sign the log book with the date and your user name and then get back online at geocaching.com to log your find there and claim your smiley (that is how you know which ones you have already claimed.   I did call this treasure hunting so i will explain that a bit.  Caches can be many different sizes, from as tiny as your fingernail to a  4 foot by 4 foot ammo box.  The smaller the cache is the less likely there will be anything in it but a piece of paper to sign.  The bigger the box more stuff it will have in it… very common stuff is small toys…. like things from happy meals.  The basic rule is if you take something out you need to leave something in to replace it with of equal or better value.  Caches are also rated 1- 5 for difficulty in the find itself and for difficulty in the terrain.  What this means is that before you even head out you can know what type of cache you are going for and how difficult it might be. They are hidden all the way from park and grabs, which means you pull up to it and can get it very quickly and easily without any work at all…. to caches that need special gear ( like rock climbing or scuba diving) to be able to get to it.  Every trip out to cache can be tailored made for what you feel like doing at that time. We tend to love the ones that involve hikes in the woods.    One thing I really want to point out… the “Treasure Hunting” of the geocaching adventure is not really in what you will find “IN” the cache but in all that you can find and learn in your hunt for the cache.   A lot of caches come with a history lesson, or a beautiful view… just on our little island we have learned so much thanks to caching. Have found so many new areas to explore thanks to people who have hidden caches in all the less traveled areas.  It is a wonderful way to explore a new area when travelling, get off the beaten touristy path and see the real area.

That is the basics of geocaching.. there is lots more…. travel bugs and geo coins and pathtags and challenges and tours and events and lots more I am sure but I think this is a good start with how things work to get you started.  Dave and I have been caching since 2010, my parents since 2005 and the friends that got them started have been caching since 2003.  The friends that started this all for us have found over 12k caches, they have found at least one in each of the states and each of the Canadian Provinces, they have covered 559 of the 3,143 counties in the USA…  pretty impressive.  We are a long way from that but since there are caches all over the world, we do plan on doing our best to get as many as we can and hope to share these adventures here.  You can click (here) to check out our profile, we are Avalon140 and we have found 514 caches so far.

This summer we are doing the Washington State Parks Centennial  GeoTour and visiting 100 caches in 100 state parks to celebrate 100 years of state parks and we will be sharing that adventure on here.