Today, thousands of people around the
world are having a blast through geocaching. If you have not tried it, this is a great time of year for new adventures for the entire family.
Geocachers seek out treasures
hidden by other players while exploring interesting locations. At its
most basic level, geocaching is a game where players use GPS coordinates to
track down a location that hides a container, or cache. Geocaching is a
real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using locations found by downloading
a geocaching app on your phone.
Geocaching has no restrictions, can be done any day and with
all ages. Visit Geocaching.com for
information on how to geocache. Then click here to download the NYS Parks Geocache Challenge brochure that contains the parks
you need to visit to find the stamps.
Most locations are in the Hudson Valley including Taconic
State Park or the Walkway Over the Hudson. If you visit other regions like Central or
Saratoga/Capital Regions, you can collect stamps and apply it towards the Taconic
Region Challenge. Be sure to print the Geocache Challenge brochure and take it
with you. Paste your collected stamps on the form.
Discover acres of trails, campgrounds, beaches, lakes,
historic sites and more through your geocaching app. A great place to get
started is Olana State Historic Site in Hudson. You can find six geocaches at the Olana location. Spend the day and see if you
can find all six.
After researching this story, I encouraged my son Damien to join me
on our first geocaching journey. I
recommend bringing a pen with you so that when you find a cache you can sign in
that you have been there. Also be sure to take water in order to stay hydrated.
Wear comfortable shoes. You will need them if you find yourself in areas where
you have to hike or walk, like at the state parks. The app will give you an
idea of the difficulty you will have locating each specific cache. The app
rates difficulty from one which is easy locate to five being the most difficult
to find. It also rates the terrain you have to travel to get to the cache. So,
when you are walking with little ones with short legs you have the option of
starting with easy finds and work your way up.
My son and I started out by opening the geocaching app and
looking for something close to where we live. We instantly got lots of places
to go and headed to the closest one. It was rated easy, and it really was. This
one was a micro-cache, being very small. About the size of the tip of my
finger. Inside we found a tightly rolled piece of paper with signatures and
dates. We saw one that dated back to 2005. We signed and dated the paper, put
it back and then logged our find into the app.
Read more: Geocaching: A Treasure Hunt for the Whole Family
Off we went to our next destination. This was more
challenging and involved walking on a path in the Hudson Highlands State Park. After
finding several caches in the park, my son declared our adventure a success. In
fact, he was so enamored with geocaching, he invested in the app upgrade right in
the middle of the woods. The state park had larger caches, which were exciting
to find and discover what was in them.
Geocaching is like a treasure hunt and can be lots of fun
especially with children. I can’t wait to take my grandchildren. The geocache
containers often contain little toys, keychains, mementos, and the like, which
kids love.
Also, when you go consider taking small trinkets with you so
you can add to the geocache site you visit. You can exchange what you brought
for something your child finds that they would like to have. Just be sure to
leave a little something if you take something.
So, pack a picnic lunch, grab the kids and head out for some
fun and adventure!
Other articles by HVP News Reporters