August 19 is National Geocaching Day, but we’re heading into a great time of year throughout the world for geocaching. If you’ve never done it, or never heard of it, geocaching is like a big outdoor treasure hunt. People place “caches” in various designated locations, which you can get coordinates for using an app.
The app uses the GPS on your phone to direct you to the location of the cache, which can be anything from a plastic bag to a fake rock with a hidden compartment. All caches have a log book, so you should bring a pen to sign it, but a lot of caches also include little trinkets or special items. You can simply enjoy looking at these items, or you can take an item if you leave something of equal value in trade.
It’s a great way to make a hike or time in nature a little more fun for kids, and lets them live out their treasure hunting dreams (and maybe yours, too!).
You might be surprised at how many caches are available where you are (the page linked above tells me there are more than 700 in my town alone!) and the app ranks the caches by difficulty, both in terms of how hard it is to find the cache and how hard it is to get to where the cache is located.
Run Wild My Child has a great post all about geocaching with kids, and it notes that the free version of the geocaching app only shows easy caches, which is great when you’re doing it with kids. Tales of a Mountain Mama also advises that you check that a cache was found recently, because sometimes they do disappear and you don’t want that kind of disappointment when kids are around.
It’s always a good idea to bring a pen, and maybe some paper, and some little trinkets to drop in the caches you find, but Geocaching.com has a great post with some other things you might want to pack when you go hunting for caches.
Have you ever done geocaching with kids? I’d love to hear about your experience.
[Photo: Run Wild My Child]
Leave a Reply