Easy way to find caches at rest stops?

[+asg-sewnuts]

Hi all, Just getting ready to travel to South Carolina from Alabama and was wondering if there is an easy way to find out if there are any caches at the rest stops along the way or if anyone knows of particular caches. I tried looking up zip codes but since I am not exactly sure which city the rest stops are in, it makes it hard to find caches in that area. Thanks for your help.

[ao318]

The easiest way is to create a route from this link, Caches along a route,. It is easy to do, just practice a little. It gives you all the directions on how to do it.

 

edited for spelling, oops.

Edited February 13, 2009 by ao318

[+jeffbouldin]

You have to be a premium member to run pocket queries with the caches along a route feature. Another way is to click on Hide and Seek a Cache and look toward the middle, you'll see a link that says search with google maps. You can zoom to your starting point and pan along your route.

[+Seeker_Knight]

The easiest way by far is to just pay for the premium service, and use the caches along route feature. That alone is worth the $30 annual fee.

 

Hi all, Just getting ready to travel to South Carolina from Alabama and was wondering if there is an easy way to find out if there are any caches at the rest stops along the way or if anyone knows of particular caches. I tried looking up zip codes but since I am not exactly sure which city the rest stops are in, it makes it hard to find caches in that area. Thanks for your help.

[+Rockin Roddy]

Seems OP is a premmie!

 

Do a caches along route search as suggested above and load the caches to your GPS...good to go!

[+deb3day]

Even tho I am a premium member, I prefer to just follow the map screen and see what is along the route I plan to travel.

[+theosus]

Hi all, Just getting ready to travel to South Carolina from Alabama and was wondering if there is an easy way to find out if there are any caches at the rest stops along the way or if anyone knows of particular caches. I tried looking up zip codes but since I am not exactly sure which city the rest stops are in, it makes it hard to find caches in that area. Thanks for your help.

 

Some have mentioned "caches along a route" queries. Those work, but you will get a lot of caches on frontage roads, gas stations next to the interstate, etc. etc. Ive driven from mobile to columbia, and trust me, I didnt feel like jumping off the interstate every five minutes. Thats a long drive as it is.

 

Use the google maps on geocaching, start at your home, and pan along the interstates. Usualy rest stop caches come in pairs - one eastbound and one westbound (or north/south). If you're going on I-20, there are only two rest stops in SC - the welcome center and exit 98 - both of which have caches.

 

Not sure about other interstates. I 95 has a couple, I 85 from atlanta to greenville has one or two...

 

Sit down with a rand mcnally atlas and it will show you exactly where the rest areas are. Little blue houses.

[Neos2]

Another good resource is GeoTruckers, a site for the operators of big rigs and RVs that like to geocache. They have some lists of caches along certain routes, and lots of helpful people visit their forums.

[+niraD]

My approach for rest-stop caches is just to pull into a rest stop when we need one. I use my G1 smartphone to look up nearby caches, and if there's a cache at that rest stop, then I grab it. If not, then it's no big deal.

[JohnMac56]

The method I use when I don't want to use the 'Caches Along A Route' feature and I want to be picky about which caches I load is as follows:

• Create a bookmark list with a name like Los Angeles to Sacramento (name it whatever you like)
  
• Enter my starting zip code on geocaching.com main page
  
• Click on the 'Map It' link in upper right corner of the results of the zip code search to open the map
  
• Use the mouse to move the map along my route until I see a cache I want on my list
  
• Click on the cache I want in my list
  
• Select 'Bookmark It' which opens up a new window
  
• Click 'Create Bookmark' in the new window (make sure it is for the right bookmark list you created earlier)
  
• Close the bookmark window
  
• Move the map to the next one and repeat until you are finished adding the caches you want to find
  
• Create a pocket query for the bookmark list and load them into your GPSr
  

I have found this method to be pretty easy to do and it lets me be picky as to which caches I want to find instead of loading up all the gas station caches, frontage road caches and others that just don't appeal to my taste in caches. I hope this helps you out...

[+SwampYankee]

Another easy way it to add KLM to Google Earth. Zoom in a little and it will show you every cache on the planet. Just follow your route and it will show you all of them along the way. the closer you get, the more accurate it will be, but it still has a built in offset.... But it will show you what rest areas to hit. I've hit them all on Rt 81 from Connecticut to SC. All easy grabs and a nice break to stretch the legs.....

Fact, the KLM file for google is on this site......

SwampYankee

Edited February 15, 2009 by SwampYankee

[+J-Way]

Another easy way it to add KLM to Google Earth....

That's what I use.