Yosemite? National Parks?

[kicapa]

Hello,

We are new to this and the family has really caught the bug. We have a neighbor mentoring us! We are heading to Yosemite and then to Mt. Whitney and were wondering why there weren't in caches at Yosemite. Are we not allowed?

thanks!

[jholly]

Hello,

We are new to this and the family has really caught the bug. We have a neighbor mentoring us! We are heading to Yosemite and then to Mt. Whitney and were wondering why there weren't in caches at Yosemite. Are we not allowed?

thanks!

 

The answer is no. Yosemite has several virtuals and does have a virtual multi. Virturals are the only caches NPS allows and those don't get posted anymore.

 

There are caches outside the parks.

 

Jim

[kicapa]

Thanks, does that go for State Parks, as well? I heard that one varies, but want to make sure.

 

Hello,

We are new to this and the family has really caught the bug. We have a neighbor mentoring us! We are heading to Yosemite and then to Mt. Whitney and were wondering why there weren't in caches at Yosemite. Are we not allowed?

thanks!

 

The answer is no. Yosemite has several virtuals and does have a virtual multi. Virturals are the only caches NPS allows and those don't get posted anymore.

 

There are caches outside the parks.

 

Jim

[+pklong911]

At one time, at least in Washington State, you could. There was a form you had to fill out, and you had to get the Rangers permission to place it. So check with your state's parks section and see what they have to say and what requirements they may have.

[+briansnat]

If you can get permission from the park superintendent you can hide a cache there. Permission would have to come from the super, not just any park ranger or employee and you'll probably need to provide some proof of permission to the reviewer.

 

Doesn't hurt to ask I guess.

Edited April 3, 2009 by briansnat

[kicapa]

Thank you both, we are heading to a state park this weekend and will let you know how it goes.

 

At one time, at least in Washington State, you could. There was a form you had to fill out, and you had to get the Rangers permission to place it. So check with your state's parks section and see what they have to say and what requirements they may have.

[+Renegade Knight]

Hello,

We are new to this and the family has really caught the bug. We have a neighbor mentoring us! We are heading to Yosemite and then to Mt. Whitney and were wondering why there weren't in caches at Yosemite. Are we not allowed?

thanks!

Used to be a blanket "No". Now park directors have more lattitude and so it's only mostly a blanket "No" but a yes can creep into the mix with the right cacher talking to the right person at the park. That person isn't going to be anyone you normally meet on the ground.

[sdarken]

I dont know where you area located but state parks that I know of in California seem to be fine with geocaching and dont require permits for geocaches to be placed.

 

Whitney has a virtual and a traditional cache at the top though sadly it seems that the traditional might be missing at present.

[+Sol seaker]

I know in WA state you can hide them in state parks, but only with written permission. There are some parks that are "cache friendly" and some that are not.

I don't know about National Parks here.

I know one that someone has been trying for quite a while to get permission after getting a letter from the State park saying to remove it. No permission yet.

While another park is, a local reviewer said, "cache friendly" because of a cache friendly ranger there.

I asked how to find out and the reviewer said try the local websites, but they might not have it on there because they usually can't figure out what department has authority over "hiding tupperware in bushes".

We are a strange lot aren't we?? LOL

SS

[vagabond]

The last I have heard, was it's up to the ranger in charge of the individual park in Ca.

While we were guest hosts at Caswell state memorial park outside of Ripon last year there

were 4 caches in the park and the ranger in charge of the park knew about them and he was ok

with 3 and and was watching a 4th because it was about 30 feet off the trail and he didn't

want any social trails leading off the trail.

Now you might want to go to the southwest region and ask about Borrego state park and the

head ranger there.

While we were at Caswell the ranger did mention that the state park system was trying to come up with a caching policy that would be used state wide, but as far as I know there is nothing yet

Edited April 3, 2009 by vagabond

[+K0VLJ]

>briansnat wrote:

>If you can get permission from the park superintendent you can hide a cache there.

 

Brian, I think we have a fast growing resistance to caches in many parks. I hope that Geocaching leadership can reverse this trend. Two simple changes in present geocaching procedures 'might' be enough.

 

Those two changes are: 1. a return to allowing Virtual Caches and 2. requiring the very first line of the cache owners comments to be something like, "Stay on the designated Trails or this park system will have ALL caches removed."

 

Let me give you background on how I came to this conclusion. I've had the privilege to give a 2 hour seminar titled Geocaching 101, three times and assisted in teaching in two other years. This year a newer geocacher that had volunterred last year for an entire summer at Coachella Valley Nature Preserve (near Thousands Palms, CA) told me this story. That park's superintendent (29,200 acres) had previously welcomed caches (38 in just one major trail) IF the caches were located within 5 feet of established trails AND during the Springs six-week flower blooming period no off-trail walking on the flowers at all was to be undertaken. Seems reasonable enough. BUT that superintendent frequently saw people with GPSrs going cross country (line of sight) to each new cache (probably thinking by saving distance they could get more caches in a smaller period of time).

 

I would hope that a bold-printing announcement on the very first line of the cache owner's description would eliminate that frequently broken park rule. If confidence has already been broken in specific parks, maybe those superintendents would at least allow Virtual Caches.

 

I spent about a week in and around the largest state park in California a few weeks ago. The administrator of Anza Borrego Desert State Park, and all of the staff, was convinced that they had seen many geocachers DIGGING for caches. Local Cachers have tried to show and explain that burying caches is not allowed in our sport. But the employee that I talked to would not move off her position. We may have lost even the opportunity to 'hide' Virtual Caches in that park.

 

I know that Virtuals haven't been allowed for about three years now. But bringing them back will not only increase the knowledge gained when finding the answers to a Virtual, but improve the chances that cachers will be able to have more caches to find in the many beautiful areas of our park systems.

 

Adding to the feeling that more parks will adapt a negative attitude is that there is a discussion now under way to combine more than a dozen California state parks (Coachella Valley included) under one management and set of procedures.

 

What do you think can be done about this fast growing problem?

 

Sam

K0VLJ (caching name)