In late June of 2005 a group of us were hanging around before a Saturday night church service. Google had just released its satellite view option in Google Maps and we were entertaining ourselves looking at homes, our grandparent’s homes, the Statue of Liberty and other landmarks.

We had a special guest speaker for that weekend and he joined us in viewing different areas. He then suggested we go to geocaching.com. He had been introduced to geocaching a few weeks before and wanted to see if there were any geocaches in our area. The map showed several with one of them on a trail system I had been wanting to check out.

Right after the service we headed out. The beauty of Alaskan summers is you have almost unlimited daylight, so around 11pm we parked at the trailhead and started our half mile trek. We trotted along at a pretty good clip trying to stay ahead of the bloodthirsty mosquitoes that were on the hunt too. The handheld GPS brought us to a stump just off the trail. In no time we found a carefully hidden green ammo can. Inside was a log book and a random collection of trinkets and whatnots. We signed our names and traded a one dollar bill for an Alaskan keychain. The next day after church we headed out again.  This time we made our way up into the stunning area of Hatcher Pass. In a few hours we found four more caches and from that moment we were hooked.

Geocaching was born on May 3, 2000; the day after the GPS system was made available for public use. A gentleman named Dave Ulmer hid a bucket in the woods south of Portland, Oregon filled with odds and ends, including a can of beans. He posted the coordinates on a usernet group and challenged people to go find his “stash” and sign the log book. 

Thirteen years later geocaching has spread around the globe with over two million geocaches and an estimated three to four million “cachers.” Alaska is home to over a thousand active geocaches, with more being hidden all the time.

From that first five gallon bucket, today geocaches come in all sizes. A “nano” geocache can be as small as the tip of your pinky finger, a “micro” might be the size of a chapstick container, and a “small” might be the size of a pill bottle. An empty ammo can or a Tupperware container makes a great “regular” size geocache. A “large” geocache could be just about anything that can be hidden effectively.

Getting started takes two very simple steps. First, go to geocaching.com and register. A basic membership is free and the premium membership is just $30 a year. I recommend starting out with the free basic membership, and upgrading to the premium features later.

Your second step is getting a GPS device if you don’t already have one. For geocaching, you want a hand held unit, not the kind you’d use in a car for driving directions. Garmin and Magellan are the two most popular brands. Your iPhone or other GPS enabled smart phone will work too. You can spend as little as a $100 on a good unit. Or, if you like a few more bells and whistles, you can spend $200 to $400.

Now you are ready to go geocaching. You can search for nearby geocaches on the geocaching website and view geocache coordinates, descriptions, hints, and the logs of previous finders. Input the coordinates into your GPS, make note of the geocache details and head out! Or even better, you can purchase the Geocaching App from Groundspeak and have all the details on your smartphone. Some geocaches can be directly driven up to and can even be found by someone who might be mobility impaired. Other geocaches might require a significant hike. That’s the beauty of geocaching. There’s something for everyone.

Why would you go looking for a geocache? Some geocaches are filled with “swag.” That’s what cachers call the trinkets, toys, souvenirs, and other odds and ends you’ll find in a cache. But for most the real goal is not what is in the geocache, it’s the thrill of finding something that is hidden to most people. The journey in finding a Geocache is often the greatest reward.

Caching in Alaska will let you explore areas that you may not have known existed. It lets you get out and enjoy this great land we live in. From Homer to the Mat-Su Valley to Fairbanks, there are caches out there to be found. Because caches are often hidden by locals in their area, Geocaching can take you to hidden spots that are easily overlooked. 

For example, at the South Denali Viewpoint at Mile 132.5 of the Parks Highway you have a beautiful view of Mt. McKinley. But off to the side is a little trail that takes you up to an even better viewpoint. How do I know that? Because there is a geocache up there that we found recently. One of the best views in the Mat-Su Valley is at the Scout Ridge Overlook above Cottonwood Creek on the Palmer Hay Flats. Yep, there’s a geocache there too.

Geocaching can be done solo but is also a great group and family activity. Are you worried your kids are spending too much time in front of the TV? Load up some cache coordinates and head out. We’ve taken kids as young as three and four years old and they love finding “hidden treasure.”

So get out and enjoy Alaska!