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Gunnison/Crested Butte Colorado
Family Activity Guide
Summer 2007
Features - Geocaching in the Gunnison County
By Tracy Tokunaga

Looking for a new adventure to share with the kids? Want to play with billions of dollars of satellites for free? The whole family, down to the youngest member, can become treasure hunters and explorers. All you need is a handheld GPS unit (Global Positioning Satellite), computer access and a terrific sense of adventure.

Welcome to the world of Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing). Some people call it a sport, others call it a hobby. But no matter what you call it, it is addictive! There are over 300,000 active geocaches in 222 countries around the world, some tougher to get to than others.

Basically, you use your GPS to locate a "cache" that has been hidden by another geocacher. These "caches" are containers that can be as small as a film canister and as large as a five gallon bucket,

filled with "treasure" such as batteries, toys, pencils, baseball caps, Beanie Babies, books, magnets…well, you get the idea.

In the Gunnison Country, it can be the location of the cache that is the biggest reward. An awesome cave formation, an old mining site, or 360-degree views are often the best reason for hiking straight uphill for an ammo box filled with toys. Ask any geocacher and they will tell you that the reason they do it is to access places they never would have otherwise seen. In my family's geocaching experiences, we have ended up in the middle of a crater in California, underwater in Lake Havasu in Arizona, and in an overgrown, forgotten cemetery in New York.

In the Gunnison-Crested Butte area, there are currently 162 caches within a 50-mile radius. Many are hidden near established trails. Kid-Friendly Magazine sponsors two caches in the Crested Butte area, one out Cement Creek Road and one off the Lower Loop Trail near the Peanut Mine area.

These caches were placed with the family in mind, and offer an exciting and beautiful hike as well as the prospect of a hidden treasure at the end. With a little help from Mom or Dad, the kids will love to operate the GPS unit as they hone in on their prize. What a terrific way to spice up the hiking experience!

There is a web site dedicated solely to the sport at www.geocaching.com. It is free to join and provides you and your family with all of the information you need to become experienced geocachers. Simply put in the zip code of the area you will be visiting and you will see a list of geocaches nearby. You can read about each individual cache, check the difficulty rating, and get any hints to help you easily find the cache.

My kids loved the hints when we first started, but now would rather rely on their own cunning and the GPS coordinates to locate the "treasure." When you select a cache that you would like to find, simply download the coordinates into your GPS and your adventure begins.

When you locate a geocache, the rules are simple: If you take something, you should leave something in return, and sign the logbook that is located in every official cache. Before our family heads out for a day of geocaching, we pack a backpack full of water (you never know where the trail may lead you and how long you may be searching), snacks, and "SWAG". SWAG (Stuff We All Get) can be any small item that you are willing to trade for what is found in the cache.

A lot of people seem to clean out their junk drawers to obtain SWAG. However we have found Swiss Army knives, music CDs, sunglasses, petrified rocks and many other usable and fun items. Some caches have themes and ask you to please place only themed items. This takes a little pre-planning but adds to the adventure. We have enjoyed frog-, buffalo-, and camping-themed caches in some of our many adventures.

While in the Gunnison Country, perhaps you want to explore the old Baldwin town site, a memorial to a 1940's B-24 crash, a hidden waterfall, or Butch Cassidy's purported cave hide-out. Geocaching can help your family explore all of these places and many more.

On the web site, just enter the ZIP code 81224, and pick from many options. We generally decide on our prospects based on the time or the energy that we have. Some days, we just want a short hike, and on others we are primed for some bushwhacking adventure.

There are many variations to the game of geocaching that keep it fresh and lively. Events are planned as well as games and special prizes for FTFs or "First to Find." Our favorite is finding a "Travel Bug." Travel Bugs are objects that have a special tag and serial number that are tracked on the web site. There you can watch the TB's movements as it travels to special places around the world. One TB that we found near Mt. Whitney in California has since traveled to Macchu Picchu, Pitcairn Island, and Easter Island. What a great geography lesson for the kids!

Geocaching is a great way for you and your family to have fun in the great outdoors. It's part high-tech and part old-time explorer, but always an adventure.