Recommendations please of your best caches

[+stonefielders]

Hi

We are a British family coming over to the North west for part of a three week holiday. We have hired a car and will be driving ourselves and camping our wayaround the cascades, Mt Ranier, Olympic NP, Mt st Helens Vancouver and Vancouver Island

We would really like recommendations for the best caches to visit.

We jave two small kids (ages 3 and 6) but they breed 'em hardy in Yorkshire so they will happily walk climb ad canoe. (any caches requiring canoeing need to be near a hire outlet - we can't get our canadian into the hand baggage) We tend to prefer rural traditional caches - the kids are motivated by treasure! But a few micros around towns will break up the sightseeing.

We are really excited about our holiday and are looking forward to exploring your country we would very much value any suggestions for caches to visit

We will happily bring any Tb's that want to travel back to Britain but not sure how we'd arrange a pick up

With thanks in advance

the stonefielders

[+Criminal]

When?

[+WATreasureHunters]

I would suggest the APE cache, Mission 9: Tunnel of Light, if you are coming in summer months. It is a geocaching legend, and earns you a special icon on your stats page. But more than that, it requires a hike through an old railroad tunnel, which is an experience in and of itself. It is in the Cascades, east and about an hour out of Seattle. There are several caches along the route, including one in the tunnel itself. It is also one of the largest containers you will probably ever see, so plenty of treasure for the little ones to dig through. I hiked up there with my daughter, who was three at the time with no problems.

 

If you are going to be near the coast, there are plenty of caches I can recommend. There are some great ones down by Cape Disappointment, which in my humble opinion, is one of the most beatiful spots on the planet. Also, if you are going to Mt St Helens, you will be in shouting distance of the Original Stash Tribute, which marks the very first geocache placed, in Oregon.

 

Let us know the specifics of your plans, I am sure we can hook you up.

 

Sarah

WATreasureHunters

[+Allanon]

I would suggest the APE cache, Mission 9: Tunnel of Light, if you are coming in summer months. It is a geocaching legend, and earns you a special icon on your stats page. But more than that, it requires a hike through an old railroad tunnel, which is an experience in and of itself. It is in the Cascades, east and about an hour out of Seattle. There are several caches along the route, including one two in the tunnel itself. It is also one of the largest containers you will probably ever see, so plenty of treasure for the little ones to dig through. I hiked up there with my daughter, who was three at the time with no problems.

 

If you are going to be near the coast, there are plenty of caches I can recommend. There are some great ones down by Cape Disappointment, which in my humble opinion, is one of the most beatiful spots on the planet. Also, if you are going to Mt St Helens, you will be in shouting distance of the Original Stash Tribute, which marks the very first geocache placed, in Oregon.

 

Let us know the specifics of your plans, I am sure we can hook you up.

 

Sarah

WATreasureHunters

Fixed.

 

I also want to point to the top of this Forum. There is a 'pinned' topic for Bookmark lists which have a lot of great suggestions as well...including Favorites, Top x%, Cache of the Month winners, etc.

 

And yes, let us know when you will be here. Sounds like a good excuse for an Event.

[+stonefielders]

thanks

that APE cache sounds great. I can't believe its had over 600 visits. Our caches that we have got out here have had on average about 10 visits each, but then caching is more reecent over here (well i suppose you americans have to have some history older than us brits)

Our plans are fairly fluid we have a flight booked into Calgary for Friday 13th July and have got tickets for the stampede for the saturday. We fly out of Vancouver on Sun 5th August we have just booked a car and our bringing our own tent so we can be pretty fluid with our plan. The only fixed date we have is that we have to be in Seattle on Sunday July 29th because we have tickets for great big seas concert at woodland park zoo

Our vague plan at the moment is to drive out of calgary to drumheller to visit the dinosaurs then head south for Waterton glacier national park. We will then spend a fair ammount of time in Banff, jasper, Yoho area before heading west to seattle the cascades and the concert. We are then thinking of a loop taking in Ranier Mt st Helens and Olympic over to vancouver island and finishing with a couple of days in vancouver.

My main concern at the moment with our plan is it involves several crossings of the american canadian border. Not sure painless this will be for no americans/ canadians? Perhaps we need to try to cut down the number of time we cross to once can - amer and once back to canada for the flight home?

Edited June 4, 2007 by stonefielders

[+Half-Canadian]

My main concern at the moment with our plan is it involves several crossings of the american canadian border. Not sure painless this will be for no americans/ canadians? Perhaps we need to try to cut down the number of time we cross to once can - amer and once back to canada for the flight home?

 

I guess I'm the resident expert here on the border crossing since I go back and forth multiple times each week. If you'd like to email me directly through my profile -- Half-Canadian and Scooter the Wonder Dog -- I can help you work out the best locations and times to cross the border to cut down on delays, as well as share my tips for avoiding problems at the border.

[+hydnsek]

My main concern at the moment with our plan is it involves several crossings of the american canadian border. Not sure painless this will be for no americans/ canadians? Perhaps we need to try to cut down the number of time we cross to once can - amer and once back to canada for the flight home?

 

I guess I'm the resident expert here on the border crossing since I go back and forth multiple times each week. If you'd like to email me directly through my profile -- Half-Canadian and Scooter the Wonder Dog -- I can help you work out the best locations and times to cross the border to cut down on delays, as well as share my tips for avoiding problems at the border.

Well, hey, some of the rest of us wouldn't mind that info, either! A border-crossing tutorial.

[+EraSeek]

I think she has her own special tunnel

[+Kiersolvd]

Hi. You will enjoy your time here. I've had the pleasure of caching in North Yorkshire on a couple trips to visit family. I havn't been in your neck of the woods to know what you are used to though I noted that I found two caches in the Lakes District that you did too.

 

One thing to consider in your planning is scale. You can travel greater distances in a day on the roads here, in most cases, than can be done in England. The Interstate highways are very much like the Motorways and many of the highways here are much like your A routes but with fewere crossroads (and very few roundabouts.) On the other hand, you will be tempted to do too much and try to travel further than is realistic. A 400-600 mile day is a long day.

 

As far a caches here in Washington State, the favorites of both EraSeek and Moun10Bike are a good place to start. Once you focus in on an area, then others will pipe in on their favorites.

 

If you want to meet some people here, just say the word and a quick event, official or organized through the forums will help you do that.

 

One final thought on a Seattle cache is this one: A Criminal Education It is a treat. If you are lucky, some frogs might come out for a visit.

 

Cheers!

Edited June 5, 2007 by Kiersolvd

[Team Misguided]

 

If you want to meet some people here, just say the word and a quick event, official or organized through the forums will help you do that.

 

Cheers!

 

Excellent point!!!! The local geo-community is always excited to meet people from out of town/country and will gladly host an event cache to celebrate.

[+stonefielders]

 

If you want to meet some people here, just say the word and a quick event, official or organized through the forums will help you do that.

 

Cheers!

 

Excellent point!!!! The local geo-community is always excited to meet people from out of town/country and will gladly host an event cache to celebrate.

 

would love to meet up with some of you

[+Shop99er]

 

If you want to meet some people here, just say the word and a quick event, official or organized through the forums will help you do that.

 

Cheers!

 

Excellent point!!!! The local geo-community is always excited to meet people from out of town/country and will gladly host an event cache to celebrate.

 

NOT IT!!

Edited June 5, 2007 by Shop99er

[+Criminal]

 

If you want to meet some people here, just say the word and a quick event, official or organized through the forums will help you do that.

 

Cheers!

 

Excellent point!!!! The local geo-community is always excited to meet people from out of town/country and will gladly host an event cache to celebrate.

 

NOT IT!!

But you do it so well!

[+stonefielders]

Thanks for all your help so far

Next question:

We have the whoole of britain as a 1:25,000 map on our PC, we download the caches onto it to help with at least finding the sart of the trail if not the cache.

What would you all recommend is our bast option with maps whilst we are on holiday in the states either hard copy or software that we can do print outs from before we come? Plus even better is there any free software to be had?

[MarcusArelius]

The online google maps are great, for example.

 

Or you can download google earth and add the GC KML extention to it so you can import GPX files to it

[+stonefielders]

Thanks everyone

we are hoping to do the APE cache. As we are strangers to the area and as yet only have a road atlas for the area and no detailed maps any additional hints would be useful eg

Which map would we be advised to get?

what trailhead do we start from?

About how far from the trailhead is it to the cache (we have a 6 and 4 year old)?

Is there a decent campsite nearby (we are happy with state parks we don't need hook ups or a KOA)

many thanks for any additional help

stonefielders

[+WeightMan]

Thanks everyone

we are hoping to do the APE cache. As we are strangers to the area and as yet only have a road atlas for the area and no detailed maps any additional hints would be useful eg

Which map would we be advised to get?

what trailhead do we start from?

About how far from the trailhead is it to the cache (we have a 6 and 4 year old)?

Is there a decent campsite nearby (we are happy with state parks we don't need hook ups or a KOA)

many thanks for any additional help

stonefielders

There are two routes to the APE cache. The level one starts at the west end of the tunnel at Iron Horse State Park and is about three miles one way to the cache, but is it level. The other starts at the Asahel Curtis Parking area on the west side of the pass. That trail is not the easiest as there are lots of roots and rocks on the trail. The distance is probably about the same, but there is a fair amount of elevation gain. Parking is free at the state park, but parking at the Asahel Curtis lot requires a NW Forest Pass. Camping is available near the Asahel Curtis area and on Denny Creek. Both are National Forest land. Both campgrounds require a fee, I think. Another cache to do is the Franklin Falls cache which is not far away.

 

If you search this forum for threads on the APE cache, you might be able to find more detailed information.

[+klossner]

We are then thinking of a loop taking in Rainier ...

Mt. Rainier could be a problem. They suffered heavy damage over the winter, and some roads are still closed. Perhaps people close to the area can give details?

[+klossner]

We should either fix the forums so they don't show a "time out" error while still submitting a post, or we should give users a delete key. Even if it only works for the first ten minutes of a post's life.

Edited July 2, 2007 by klossner

[MarcusArelius]

We are then thinking of a loop taking in Rainier ...

Mt. Rainier could be a problem. They suffered heavy damage over the winter, and some roads are still closed. Perhaps people close to the area can give details?

 

Yeah only a dumb #%$ would try to make the loop on a timeline

[+Fuzzywhip]

I would suggest the APE cache, Mission 9: Tunnel of Light, if you are coming in summer months. It is a geocaching legend, and earns you a special icon on your stats page. But more than that, it requires a hike through an old railroad tunnel, which is an experience in and of itself. It is in the Cascades, east and about an hour out of Seattle. There are several caches along the route, including one in the tunnel itself. It is also one of the largest containers you will probably ever see, so plenty of treasure for the little ones to dig through. I hiked up there with my daughter, who was three at the time with no problems.

 

If you are going to be near the coast, there are plenty of caches I can recommend. There are some great ones down by Cape Disappointment, which in my humble opinion, is one of the most beatiful spots on the planet. Also, if you are going to Mt St Helens, you will be in shouting distance of the Original Stash Tribute, which marks the very first geocache placed, in Oregon.

 

Let us know the specifics of your plans, I am sure we can hook you up.

 

Sarah

WATreasureHunters

 

I completely agree with the Mission 9 and Original Stash caches.

 

I just came back from a geocaching holiday in Washington and Oregon several weeks ago. Did both caches as a highlight for my trip.

 

The Original Stash Tribute Plaque (GCGV0P) is quite close to the WA/OR border. I KOA camped at Cascade Locks, and there the cache wasn't very far. Lots of other caches in this area include the Unoriginal Cache which is VERY close.

 

Mission 9: Tunnel of Light GC1169 is another "don't miss" cache. While a bit of a drive out of Seattle, the 2 mile tunnel was worth it.

 

As you head North to Canada, you may consider the Lime Kiln series of caches near Granite Falls, WA. The Trailhead is (GCMC14). This is a series of 5 caches with a fairly long hike (I think it's about 7 miles round trip. I did 4 out of 5 last summer and loved the hike. Start early in the morning and read the signs about parking and flora and fauna.

 

Cheers!

 

Fuzzywhip

[+hydnsek]

In case it helps: most of the caches already mentioned, plus a few other must-do's, are on my NW Classics bookmark list, which I just updated based on input from fellow cachers around here. (Thanks, guys!)

 

The list contains 26 caches that are most frequently cited as the "must do's" when visitors ask what to see/do, as well as popular rites of passage. Emphasis is on Seattle area and nearby day trips, as well as a few other caches (e.g. Original Stash, Room With a View) that are frequently cited as NW classics for those on road trips. I included a couple of hiking caches, focusing on bang-for-the-buck for the mainstream cacher. I also added some location info, to help visitors who aren't familiar with local names and landmarks plan their trips.