New to this

[Gilamonster1]

I went to my zipcode area and I found a Geocache site near me. Do I put the coordinates in my GPS and start walking?

How can I tell where to start? I have this Trip and Waypoint manager that came with my GPS. I have managed to make my home a waypoint and this geocache as a waypoint. I dont understand how I make a route between the two. I have never used a GPS before so I am really starting at the bottom here. Any help would be appreciated. If it helps the site I found is N32 22.543 W111 08.486 and is called hole in rock.

Shouldn't there be some instructions as to where I should start?

Thanks

[+StarBrand]

Some caches include parking or starting coordinates but the vast majority do not. Frankly, you can sart walking from your house or any other point on earth you want but that probably just makes it harder. Make use of the online maps linked off the online listing page to find a road or path that is nearby. Get as close as you reasonable can with your car and then fire up the GPS and follow the arrow to the cache.

 

If you are an avid hiker - park further away and go from there. Some caches you can literally park your car next to - others require walks of several miles in either direction. It is really up to you to decide the best starting point.

 

Google Earth is my mappin software of choice - allows me to see in great detail the area I am heading off to.

[Gilamonster1]

Some caches include parking or starting coordinates but the vast majority do not. Frankly, you can sart walking from your house or any other point on earth you want but that probably just makes it harder. Make use of the online maps linked off the online listing page to find a road or path that is nearby. Get as close as you reasonable can with your car and then fire up the GPS and follow the arrow to the cache.

 

If you are an avid hiker - park further away and go from there. Some caches you can literally park your car next to - others require walks of several miles in either direction. It is really up to you to decide the best starting point.

 

Google Earth is my mappin software of choice - allows me to see in great detail the area I am heading off to.

Thanks for the reply.

I am a pretty avid hiker. I picked one real close to home just to get a feel for it.

[Neos2]

When we first started out, I clicked on the maps on the cache page to figure out my route to the cache. After a bit, I learned that there were two or three maps that were the most useful to me. I could figure out how to drive there, where to try to park, and about where the cache would be in relation to things I should recognize (east of a church, deep in the left-hand side of the wooded area, across the street from some houses, etc).

 

Then I put the cords for the cache in my gps and hit "go to" to show me which general direction to head. Once I got close and parked (um, 200-400 feet or so most of the time for my first few caches), I used the base maps and the pointer on the gps to help me locate the cache.

 

Best unasked for advice--stay on the trail no matter what the arrow says--9 times out of 10 when I bushwack to a cache, I find a trail within 5 feet of the cache as I am leaving!

 

Have fun

[Gilamonster1]

When we first started out, I clicked on the maps on the cache page to figure out my route to the cache. After a bit, I learned that there were two or three maps that were the most useful to me. I could figure out how to drive there, where to try to park, and about where the cache would be in relation to things I should recognize (east of a church, deep in the left-hand side of the wooded area, across the street from some houses, etc).

 

Then I put the cords for the cache in my gps and hit "go to" to show me which general direction to head. Once I got close and parked (um, 200-400 feet or so most of the time for my first few caches), I used the base maps and the pointer on the gps to help me locate the cache.

 

Best unasked for advice--stay on the trail no matter what the arrow says--9 times out of 10 when I bushwack to a cache, I find a trail within 5 feet of the cache as I am leaving!

 

Have fun

Thanks

So there should be a go to option in my GPS?

Here is another question. Is there a site where I can find cords for specific sites? For instance ribbon falls in the Grand Canyon.

[+StarBrand]

Which GPS do you have? They all have some kind of pointer screen to point you to the cache after you select it and press "go" or "goto".

 

Again - you can use Google Earth or similar to get the coordinates for any area and then use the "hide and seek a cache" page to locate nearby caches. You can also become a premium member and run what is called a Pocket Query that will let you select criteria for the area and type of caches you like.

 

As a note - physical Geocaches are banned in all National Parks and have varying degrees of restrictions in many State Parks - check with locals for details.

[Gilamonster1]

Which GPS do you have? They all have some kind of pointer screen to point you to the cache after you select it and press "go" or "goto".

 

Again - you can use Google Earth or similar to get the coordinates for any area and then use the "hide and seek a cache" page to locate nearby caches. You can also become a premium member and run what is called a Pocket Query that will let you select criteria for the area and type of caches you like.

 

As a note - physical Geocaches are banned in all National Parks and have varying degrees of restrictions in many State Parks - check with locals for details.

I have a Garmin Legend Cx. I will be going out with it tomorrow for the first time. I am going into the Tucson mountains which I know pretty well already. I am going somewhere I know to get a feel for it.

[Neos2]

Then I put the cords for the cache in my gps and hit "go to" to show me which general direction to head. Once I got close and parked (um, 200-400 feet or so most of the time for my first few caches), I used the base maps and the pointer on the gps to help me locate the cache.

Thanks

So there should be a go to option in my GPS?

Yep. Push on your page button until you get to the screen that has the multiple options (waypoints, cities, fuel etc) and then select "waypoints"

& scroll through the waypoints until you find the one you want to go to

 

Here is another question. Is there a site where I can find cords for specific sites? For instance ribbon falls in the Grand Canyon.

You can google for cords

Here are some in a different format I found them using the terms ribbon falls grand canyon coordinates

here's another with a map if you can read gpx files

or you can try to find a geocache that is close to there and use the maps on gc to move around until you find what you want

here is a virtual cache near the kaibab bridge and other caches near there.

 

You can use this map to look around using the coords from any of the above and see topo or images. When you recenter the map it tells you the new cords.

[Neos2]

Oh yeah, and if you have mapping software in your unit (not just the basemap) you can also scroll your arrow around until you find what you want on the map---or do a search for points of interest (see the same page on your unit that had fuel, food, waypoints, etc one of them is "points of interest").

Edited January 6, 2007 by Neos2