South Surrey Scavengers

Using the keyword Earthcache for a search will turn up about 90% of them. There are a few that do not have Earthcache in the title so they will not show up. Alternatively, if you click on Hide & Seek a Cache then click on a Search button without entering an criteria should get a new screen that allows you to select a cache type and a country. Unfortunately for the US, you will have to select a state so you can't search for Earthcaches in all of US without doing 1 state at a time. But for all other countries you can run the search for the whole country.

If Geoaware stats are correct about there being 220 Earthcaches now, a search by the keyword Earthcache only turns up 187 as of today. So me thinks that there may be 33 of them that do not have Earthcache in the title.

I have seen traditional caches say they are only available during certain times of the year (due to snow or other reasons) or others that are available at certain times of day so I think you could do the same with an Earthcache. You could also disable the listing during the "off-season". You could also even have it available all year by putting the information on the cache page so that the signage isn't necessary. But I wouldn't recommend that way since cachers would go the site without the cache page in hand and not really understand what they're looking at.

The best way I know is to run a search by keyword "Earthcache" which will give you all of them. Then you will have to scroll through about 10 pages of them to find any from WA. The GSA website though is a bit out of date. They seem to be missing about 20-30 Earthcaches. I don't think they've been able to keep up with listing them.

The Barrier Earthcache has now been officially done. But the Black Tusk Earthcache is still unfound. I was up there myself 4 years ago but I wasn't caching then and I didn't take any photos up close.

The cache page does have quite a bit about the Earth Sciences. This from the cache page: "The Gorge (is a valley walled by cliffs. It originated by a process of long-time erosion from a plateau level, with a stream gradually carving out its valley. The cliffs form because harder rock strata that are resistant to erosion and weathering remain exposed on the valley walls. Canyons are much more common in arid areas than in wetter areas because weathering has a lesser effect in arid zones. Canyons' walls are often formed of resistant sandstones or granite.) was sculpted by the running water, which flows from the top of Pine Mountain a few thousand years ago. The gorge itself is around 200 ft wide and the walls are around 150 ft high. " It would be nice to see a photograph of the site though before it was listed. Because I agree that any old Waterfall should not qualify as an Earthcache. This one may be far more than just another Waterfall as indicated by the description but without a photo its difficult to know if this site is really special enough to be an Earthcache. As an Earthcache promoter myself I do not want to see the watering down of Earthcaches. They should not only provide educational aspects of the Earth Sciences but also be something that visitors can look at and see something spectacular that makes them want to learn more.

You're correct there is a lack of logging requirements for the Earthcache. You are also correct that there is a virtual at the same location. I will contact Geoaware about this. In my opinion the owner of the virtual should have been contacted and asked if they would like to convert their cache to an Earthcache and not put an Earthcache at the same location. Also the Earthcache should not have been listed without some form of logging requirement (normally it would be take a photo or email the answer to a question about the site).

Holy cow! I've got competition. I thought I had the most Earthcaches listed but you've got me beat. The problem with many of my Earthcaches is that there locations are quite remote so they have not had many visits. Unfortuantely, you can't put Earthcaches where you want to, you have to list them where they ARE. But check out my Burns Bog Earthcache which has had a lot of visits to it because its located in the middle of the city. Also White Rock Earthache is becoming popular as well although it hasn't been listed long yet. Earthcaches seem to be pretty well received from a large number of people in the geocaching community. Remember that geocaching was originally just about finding things that were hidden by other caches so virtual cache types are not as popular as the traditional type. Good luck with your paper for the GSA. Oh, I've posted some listing statistics in this Earthcache Thread

Well, since I can't be the Earthcache Master, I'm working hard at being the local Puzzle (Mystery) Cache Master . I've solved most of the ones in this area from the comfort of my couch or computer screen but just don't have the time to go find them all. My order of preference is: 1. Mystery/Puzzle Cache 2. Earthcache 3. Traditional 4. Multi I also agree that classifying them correctly would be nice as some traditionals are really mystery caches.

Since I'm a by the numbers guy and an Earthcache promoter, the list of countries with more than 1 Earthcache are as follows (as of June 27): US - 100 UK - 23 Canada - 22 Germany - 14 Australia - 4 New Zealand - 3 Norway - 3 Czech Republic - 2 Spain - 2 The total is now at 182 and growing fast. Earthcaches may not be for everyone but hopefully there are lots of people interested in them. They may be a virtual cache type which does not appeal to everyone but most of them will lead you to sites of great interest and often spectacular scenery in locations that you could not otherwise cache. Better yet, submit your own if you know of a suitable location. The link for submitting is in the first post. Oh, and since I'm a by the numbers guy, "Come on Canada help me retake the number 2 spot from the UK"

It seems you have asked this question before in another thread but didn't get much in the way of an answer. I was reading another topic that asked about missing icons on the geocaching.com maps and the response was "they're working on it"

Originally, Earthcaches were all listed under the account Geoaware who was and still is approving them before sending them to gc. They were however being credited to the submitter by listing it something like "by SouthSurreyScavengers via Geoaware". Even though actual ownership remained as Geoaware. The plan was always to get the submitters to be the owners but a few things had to be ironed out first. Once the issues were worked out he started getting the ownership of the existing Earthcaches changed to the people who submitted them. At that point there were 50-75 to transfer and it took some time to complete. One of mine actually took over a month because the name was incorrect while others took a few days. Then when the approval process was straightened out between GSA and GC they actually started getting Earthcaches approved within a day or two but they showed up as a virt instead of an Earthcache. They would then be converted to an Earthcache a few days affter listing. Now that approval process is much quicker for the whole process (a few days usually instead of a few weeks), new Earthcaches are now listed under the correct owner right from the start and the cache type is correct as well. This has been in place for about 2-3 months.

I've got 8 Earthcaches listed now and some are a few hundred miles (or km) from home. There is no absolute requirement that you visit the site however to get an accurate gps reading it helps although good maps can be used instead. It helps that I'm a geologist and have visited all but one of the Earthcaches that I have listed. To write one up and submit it you will need to know where it is, what access is like and is it available (ie. public land, parks), what the educational aspect is, etc. So technically, I could probably submit dozens more sites quite easily but I'm only submitting ones that I have been too therefore I can both describe the educational aspect and give a personal perspective. As far as size goes since it was mentioned, one of my Earthcaches is a lake and covers probably a square mile. Check it out at Summit Lake Earthcache Earthcaches may not be everyone but then there are quite a few cache types that someone else could say the same thing about. We all have parts of the caching experience that we like.

Earthcaches have been around for millenia. GC is just finally getting with the program and listing them. By the way, way up here in BC we listed our first two on 1-14-05 Black Tusk Earthcache The Barrier Earthcache. That's nearly a month before Oregon although in Geologic time it's pretty insignificant. Also we now have a total of 6 listed within the province. Now if you want to really talk about the oldest cache we are going to have to go back a ways. For you Earthache challenged states we now have one here that you can see from Washington but you'll have to cross the border to log it. Check out: White Rock Earthcache

A new Earthcache has just been approved and is located in the Vancouver (White Rock) area. Canada has the second most Earthcache listings (18) behind the US (61) currently. By province the stats are: Ontario - 7, BC - 6, Alberta - 3, Quebec - 1, New Brunswick - 1. With the exceptional geology and geography of our country we should be able to list many more sites. If you have any ideas submit them to www.earthcache.org

I'm doing my best to keep BC out front on the Earthcaches. I have another one planned and hope to get it posted in a couple of weeks. There are probably hundreds of possible Earthcaches in the Northwest (I include BC, Yukon, and Alaska in that along with the other western states). The limits being put on caches in National Parks in the US though is hampering the listing of potentially dozens of Earthcaches there. We don't have that restriction in Canada (yet) so it's been easy to get so many listed.

As Earthcaches are virtual caches they have not been banned ... yet. The National Parks in the US are not yet allowing Earthcaches but that has been in discussion for quite some time now with no resolution yet. I have a number of sites that I would like to list in Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon but Geoaware wants us to hold off on these ones until he has discussed the matter with the NPS in the US. What will happen in Canada? Who knows. For now, Parks Canada is just addressing physical caches.

I have/had some similar issues with getting Earthcaches listed. I still have an Earthcache that hasn't been transferred into my name so I can't edit it. Also, while it's in the approval process you can't edit it either. Linking photos could be done I guess but you can't put the photos in the same location as the cache page until you can edit it. I have e-mailed Geoaware about these issues to see what can be done to improve the process.

Earthcaches are relatively new. They are first approved by Geoaware through the Geosociety of America. You can visit their website at www.earthcache.org. Once they are approved their, they are submitted to gc.com for listing. Their purpose is to educate everyone (especially geocachers) about the natural world that we live in. Hopefully by having more people learn and understand some of the natural features of our Earth like fossil sites, unique landscapes, rock outcrops and other geologic processes, we will all have a greater appreciation for where we live. Earthcaches are more than just virtual caches because of their educational aspect. They are frequently located in parks that cannot otherwise have traditional caches placed in them. If anyone has recommendations for new Earthcaches please visit the aboved named website.

The question seems answered but I will add my comments as well. I have authored 5 Earthaches so far and I am waiting for a sixth one. I also help provide guidelines to the Earthcache Master (Geoaware). Earthcaches are a virtual cache with a geosciences theme. Many of them are located in parks that would otherwise not be available to cachers. Earthcaches were developed as a new cache type about a year ago but they really didn't start getting listed until last summer. There are about 75 Earthcaches currently. The requirements to place an Earthcache are listed at www.earthcache.org. The criteria generally consists of: earth sciences related, educational, virtual cache, and must go through the approval process at www.earthcache.org. Once approved there it is forwarded to www.geocaching.com for listing. We are still waiting for the icon type description to show up under cache types. That may take some of the mystery away.

The last Earthcache I submitted (Frank Slide) was Feb 28 and it was approved in about a week.

OpinoNate has approved 3 of mine so it seem that they are the primary person responsible at this time.

I've gotten a few Earthcaches listed and from my experience the proximity rules still apply as I found with 1 listing. However, the site was really not a specific point but an area from which I picked a point still in the area but far enough away from the existing cache. It seems fairly common that there are some traditional caches and virtual caches that are very close to a potential Earthcache site no doubt due to the nature of the site as it is already a popular place to visit and a geocacher probably thought to himself or herself that this would make a great geocache location. However, it has been my experience that the traditional cache while it may mention that some unqiue feature is in the area they usually do not go into the geosciences educational aspect of what makes it unique or of importance. However, if you look at a large number of Earthcaches I expect you will find that most of them are in locations that would not permit a traditional cache due to the site being in a park or other restricted use area. I would suggest that you submit your idea to www.earthcache.org and the GSA will determine if it qualifies. They are very good at getting back to you with any concerns or edits that should be made. I hope this helps.

There are several threads here about Earthcaches. You may find some of your answers at the thread titled "Earth Cache" in the Geocaching Topics forum.

There is a plan in the works to transfer ownership of Earthcaches back to the original developer. It is currently being worked on. This should please all of the developers and hopefully future developers out there. It should be pretty soon.