Okay, so maybe there aren’t any snake pits or rolling boulders, but Geocaching—a GPS stash hunting activity—isn’t your average game of hide and seek, either. Set your crew up for “missions,” including on-site word games and coordinates needing to be decrypted, all in hopes of finding tiny treasures at the end. From bat caves to fun historical and scientific facts, don your leather hat à la Indiana Jones and discover the most engaging, all-natural geocache spots below. Get an insider peek into the world of Geocaching here.
Original Stash Tribute Plaque – Oregon, USA
What’s more exciting than finding the first and original geocache ever published? Stumble through a farm (get permission first) to find a plaque that commemorates this special location. The first-ever geocache contained: a Delorme Topo USA, 2 CD-ROMs, a cassette recorder, a “George of the Jungle” VHS tape, a Ross Perot book, 4 $1 bills, a slingshot handle, and a pretty notorious can of beans. What a find!
Wicken Fen – Swindon, UK
In the Wicken Fen National Reserve of Swindon, where kiddos can go camping, stargazing, bug hunting, and more, there are a few geocaches that purposely help little ones explore the park. Meet livestock, walk by waterways and wetlands, and see wildlife!
Tour of the Totem Poles – Ketchikan, AK
If you like a little math play, complete AheaKali’s “Tour of the Totem Poles.” The coordinates lead searchers to a small park in downtown Ketchikan, where they’ll answer questions to find the exact location of your prize. Hot tip: It’s said that if you rub the belly of the bottom figure at the Chief Kyan Totem pole, money will pass through your hands within 24 hours.
The Best Guide Cache! – Belize
Find the best guide in Belize— Feliz Neal! Discovering him and his wonderful family will be any wanderer’s prize to discovering an affordable, licensed and family-friendly tour guide to the city of Belize, which is known for its abundance of terrestrial and marine life. Decrypt the cache to find his location here. If only all tour guides were this fun to discover!
Escape from Alcatraz – San Francisco, CA
Travel the seas to Alcatraz. This cache is unique as it will have searchers role-playing to “escape.” Puzzle solvers will be running high and low through the cell blocks, the recreation yard/garden, and on the dock! Answer the questions correctly and send them to user Jbond for an official certificate of your escape. If you make it outside, celebrate the rest of the day by soaking up the sun!
Bridges – Prague, Czech Republic
Finding the most visited geocache in the world can be done as a brisk walk through the city, where sights and sounds will capture any toddler’s awe and attention. If only Prague were easy to get to! Remember to turn on Google Translate when visiting this geocache page.
The Rock that Rolls – Austin, TX
A cache that will take you all over Austin—this is the world’s first ROVING geocache! That means searchers will have to read the comments to find the latest coordinates in order to find the hidden treasure. After it is found, they’ll be able to carry it around to find the next hidden location. Parks, city squares, swimming holes—it could be anywhere!
Petrified National Park – Historic Route 66, AZ
A road in the middle of the park? Well, that’s off the map! In the Petrified National Park, families can hike, horseback ride, see wildlife, and see trees that have turned to stone. But geocachers will want to keep their eyes peeled for an “unnatural” anomaly of old telephone poles and a rusty car. That’s the cache!
Night of a Thousand Bats – Sauta Cave – National Wildlife Refuge, AL
The experience of seeing hundreds of thousands of bats flying out of a limestone cave is the prize geocachers CaverScott & CaverJules are offering at this find. One family delighted their four-year-old daughter with a unique sight of federally endangered Gray and Indiana bats fluttering like butterflies. If your little ones are going to stay up past bedtime, this is exactly how they should do it
Banff Micro Cache – Banff Avenue, Canada
In a resort area known for its gorgeous mountains and hot springs lies a cache waiting to be found. Also nearby is Canada’s oldest national park, where travelers can hike, ski, camp, go horseback riding, and more. Visitors will have to remember not to be distracted by the beautiful sights when looking for the wooden gazebo (where the cache is hidden).
What in the World Cache? – Maine, USA
The location of this cache remains vague because it’s such a popular spot that many people visit. For budding globe trotters who have yet to visit all the countries in the world, this cache will definitely be their favorite. It might also be as close as one can get to seeing how Earth looks and moves from outer space.
Denver International Airport – Denver, CO
Adventurers heading home after an amazing trip in the outdoor city of Denver can still learn about the earth at the Denver airport. Hidden in the floors near Gate B29 of Terminal B are actual fossils embedded in the tile floor. Get your little iSpy masters and let them learn about the outdoors while being inside. User caccbag gives an excellent, quick lesson in fossilization here.
