{Edit added: Mea culpa...see Shannon's post and ignore the first two paragraphs here. I guess that is what I get when I try to do searches in the middle of the night when I have insomnia. However, I do seek your input for keeping the list of geocaches in Texas State Parks more up-to-date.} Despite all of the great topics here, I have seen nothing about geocaching. Geocaching is a hobby where someone hides a small container ("cache") that usually contains small trinkets and a logbook. The caches are hidden so that they will not be accidentally found by non-geocachers, but never buried. The hider then posts the coordinates on a listing website. The most popular of these listing sites is
geocaching.com. Geocachers get the coordinates from the site and use a
gps receiver to help them find the container. When they find it, they sign the log and post a log on the page for the cache at geocaching.com. There are variations to this basic theme (virtual caches, multi-caches, etc.). Geocaching is especially popular in Texas and has a very active on-line community at
Texasgeocaching.com
Caches are in all types of locations (urban, rural), but we especially enjoy those that involve a hike in one of the many Texas State Parks. We like to think of this type of geocaching as "hiking with a purpose". It has certainly introduced us to some great new locations that we would have otherwise never have seen. That is what we enjoy so very much about the hobby.
At one point several years ago, I got tired of searching for caches in this or that state park before any anticipated outing and put together a website that I call
Guide to Geocaches in Texas State Parks . Everything is done manually and I don't always keep it updated as well as I should, but please make use of the site if you are interested. Let me know if you find caches that are missing from the site or caches that need to be archived. I often miss those things, especially if they are out of the regions where we normally cache.
We were extremely active geocachers for awhile. We have recently slacked off terribly....we have been really busy with other things. However, be on the lookout for what we hope to be a new cache or two in Big Bend National Park after our upcoming trip. Unlike the State Parks, National Parks will not allow physical caches. However, they are superb locations for virtual caches. It was the list of geocaches in Big Bend that helped us find some spectacular day hikes when we were there in March.
Happy caching!
Alchemist2000
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