Heading to Southern Minnesota over 4th of July

[+theodellfamily]

We are going to take our first vacation in a LONG time over the 4th of July and are trying to find some places in Southern Minnesota (close because of gas prices). Anyone recommend caches in the Rochester, Austin, Mankato areas? We will be coming down 35W from the cities. Will be in the area for a couple of days so if you know of anything....... Only event we found is in Iowa. Not sure if we want to drive that far. Look forward to hearing from anyone and everyone.

 

Dallas

[+midnightrosefashions]

We are going to take our first vacation in a LONG time over the 4th of July and are trying to find some places in Southern Minnesota (close because of gas prices). Anyone recommend caches in the Rochester, Austin, Mankato areas? We will be coming down 35W from the cities. Will be in the area for a couple of days so if you know of anything....... Only event we found is in Iowa. Not sure if we want to drive that far. Look forward to hearing from anyone and everyone.

 

Dallas

 

hi there,

 

i'm in indiana, but originally from worthington. that is right on 90 and 4 hrs west of rochester, about 2 from mankato. last i looked, my little town of 10,000 had over 50 caches thanks to some avid cachers in the area. i can't wait to go home and find them. there are several, maybe 10 parks around the lake, and i'm sure you will enjoy the town as well as the caches. i'm sorry i can't recommend any specific caches, i just my town and my lake.

[+Wolfpack_13]

Do a search by area code for the town your going to be staying in. then view them by map. you can pan around the area to see where the concentrations of caches are.

[+bflentje]

We are going to take our first vacation in a LONG time over the 4th of July and are trying to find some places in Southern Minnesota (close because of gas prices). Anyone recommend caches in the Rochester, Austin, Mankato areas? We will be coming down 35W from the cities. Will be in the area for a couple of days so if you know of anything....... Only event we found is in Iowa. Not sure if we want to drive that far. Look forward to hearing from anyone and everyone.

 

Dallas

 

One of the higest rated Minnesota caches, Lair, is located in Houston county, about an hour east of Rochester. Must do. The terrain rating isn't as bad as the cache listing indicates, unless you do it in the winter. Other than that, the caches in Minneopa State Park located in Mankato, caches all long the Root River can't go wrong with.

[+Pear Head]

MnGCA Cache of the Month Nominees and Winners: http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.a...4b-f46d2b9ca329

 

Just the winners: http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.a...56-a4f734b0c861

 

You should be able to create a PQ if you like from the bookmark list.

[+dlgps]

State park hides such as the ones at Minneopa (west of Mankato) and Nerstrand Big Woods (east of Faribault) are good suggestions. Also, Faribault itself has a great number of various types of geocaches. Come find a couple of ours!

[+dlgps]

Hello again to theodellfamily!

 

Denny was supposed to mention in last night's log that we really enjoy hunting for caches hidden by a Faribault cacher named seldon. He has a wide variety of cache types including some interesting puzzles, cool series, long hikes, clever hints, and creative containers all within 20 to 25 miles of Faribault.

 

If you plan to search for any caches in any wooded areas...don't forget the deet! Those little bloodsuckers have been awful the last week or two.

 

Hope you enjoy geohunting in our neck of the woods. We would offer to meet you and take you to some of our very favorites but we are heading to Chicago for a week starting on 7/2.

 

Have a fun and safe holiday!

 

The Lindell's

[+starscream2]

Hello,

 

Being form the Rochester MN area I will give my opinions. I have not done all of them in the area, but a lot of them.

 

So I don't know what your favorite type of caches are and will break down some of my personal favorites in each type.

 

Larger Caches in wooded parks:

Rochester has a few parks that are fairly wooded that have several larger caches with trade goods in them. In all of these parks most of the caches are not super hard to find and are mostly near groomed trail systems. These parks have some hills and certainly will give you good hiking opportunities, but all are well marked and groomed, and none are extremely steep or difficult to hike.

Quarry Hill Park in SE Rochester. (about 10 caches) Example: Quarry Hill Replay: Cache Your Breath GC16YC9

Chester Woods Park (about 5 miles east of Rochester does require a small daily entrance fee) (5 caches) Example: ChesterWoods cache GCGCXN

Essex Park in NE Rochester (6 caches) Example: Essex Park Cache GCGQ08

 

If Urban Micros are more your style. Less hiking and maybe slightly more difficult searching. I think the SCUM (School of Common Urban Micros) series in Rochester is very well done. The owner has a series of 13 unique and interesting micro hides that they have put a lot of thought effort into. Example one in this series is: SCUM101: Intro to magnetic keyholders GC1422F

 

There are several good puzzles in the Rochester area if you enjoy them. A few of my favorites to solve were:

GEO-OPOLY: Community Chest #3 GC111W1

Geo-opoly: Community Chest #2 GC113F9

GEO-OPOLY: Community Chest #1 GC10GKN

Geo-opoly Chance #3 GC11990

 

If you want really rugged terrain or super hard ones... probably you need to travel east to the river bluffs. Winona, Red Wing, and Lacrosse have some rugged ones in the river bluffs, some great hiking and climbing there. I did the Plowline Trail series near GoodView/Winona over Father's day. Great series, but it was a 6 hour hike to get all 12 caches there.

 

Anyway I hope this helps give you some ideas of where to

[+minnesotabrad]

When in Rochester I would also reccomend Quarry Hill. Some good caches and nice hike.