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1000 earthcaches to see before you die


goosefraba1

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I was watching the travel channel this morning when I got an idea based on their show "1000 places to see before you die". I know that there are plenty of earthcaches out there.... But what are the absolute essential earthcaches to go see. I have been looking at saving up for a trip to yellowstone..... And this would definitely help me map out other places to see on the way.... And other earthcaches to plan a trip for.

 

I am going to try to make a trip to Giant prehistoric snake (serpent mound in Ohio) this coming week. That is definitely on my lust for the nearby caches.

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These are some that I would not have wanted to miss under any circumstance:

 

Avalanche on Wall Street: A great walk into the Hoodoos of Bryce Canyon.

 

Cahokia Mounds: I enjoyed seeing this location for the archeology but the earthcache was a nice bonus.

 

Carlsbad Canyons: An astonishing walk into the Caverns, with each bend of the trail opening up new wonders.

 

Devil's Golf Course: A classic Death Valley experience.

 

Inscription Rock: We we visited for the history and the inscriptions, but the geology contributed to the area and there are several great earthcaches in this region of New Mexico.

 

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks Another place to explore in New Mexico that is full of natural wonder.

 

Tufa Towers: Incredible formations around Mono Lake in California

 

Zion Narrows: I remember this one more for the experience of wading up the Virgin River further into the Narrows.

 

But anybody who likes earthcaches and has a sense of adventure should also take the time to visit One Giant Step. Although it is a virtual rather than an earthcache, the Toroweap Overlook is 60 miles from anywhere, and offers an unrestricted view to the Grand Canyon floor -- in many ways it is the classic view of the Canyon. It was on my bucket list until we managed to get there last year.

Edited by mulvaney
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Here are a few:

 

Arch Rock in Michigan

Mount Olympos in Greece

Eternal Flames Falls EC in New York State, just south of Buffalo. We absolutely loved this cache one of our favourite spots!!

The Door to Hell in Turkmenistan

 

The Eternal Flames is amazing.... I wonder how many of those are actually around?

 

The Door to Hell looks like another one to check out if I ever wake up in the middle of Turkmenistan.

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Hello, there are a few of my favourite-EarthCaches:

http://coord.info/GC1B88F Cloef

http://coord.info/GCMK1V Randeck Maar Earthcache

http://coord.info/GC1Q1KJ Uracher Wasserfall

http://coord.info/GC2BKY7 Hornisgrinde Hochmoor

http://coord.info/GC26V6K Die Marienschlucht

If you will come to Baden-Württemberg, you have to find they :anibad: !

Have fun with them!

 

I like the last one... Die Marienschlucht. I have no idea what it is... and cant make sense of the babelfish translation, but it looks pretty neat.

 

We spent the afternoon playing in this shale creek

 

f513d419-2efb-411e-8f74-05b9d0becb8e.jpg

 

e782f34c-5374-45b7-9659-186ecdced3f3.jpg

 

Had a blast... the water was about 1 foot deep... perfect way to cool down a bit.

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Here are some of our favourites EarthCaches:

 

http://coord.info/GCNP8C Steinerne Rinne bei Erasbach - stone gutter

http://coord.info/GC1GHZV Torrent the Pareis - canyon

http://coord.info/GC21761 Volcanic mayhem - Kincraig point

http://coord.info/GC1AZC8 The Monkey's Puss - Mimetolith - funny rock formation

http://coord.info/GC1R08N Steinerne Linsen Guttaring - stone lentis (fossiled numulites)

 

Idefips

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The Giant's Causeway (GCPCPX) - Northern Ireland. Who doesn't love columnar basalt? This is one of the best examples in the world.

 

The Big Rock EarthCache (GCP7ZG) - Alberta, Canada. Largest glacial erratic in the world AND has a beer named after it

 

Frank Slide (GCMZ13) - Alberta, Canada. Site of a rock slide that buried a mining town. The size of the debris field is incredible.

 

Karsts and Slithers (GC138QQ) - Manitoba, Canada. Sink holes from the Karst topography that are inundated with garter snakes every spring

 

Cave Rock - Tuawera (GC180GE) - Christchurch, New Zealand. Amazing sea cave - hopefully the cave is still intact after all the earthquakes they've had down there

 

Crystal Forest (GCZ5G7) - Arizona, USA. Petrified Forst National Park

 

These are the ones I can personally vouch for. There are also several in Iceland that I hope to get to one day.

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Hello, there are a few of my favourite-EarthCaches:

http://coord.info/GC1B88F Cloef

http://coord.info/GCMK1V Randeck Maar Earthcache

http://coord.info/GC1Q1KJ Uracher Wasserfall

http://coord.info/GC2BKY7 Hornisgrinde Hochmoor

http://coord.info/GC26V6K Die Marienschlucht

If you will come to Baden-Württemberg, you have to find they :anibad: !

Have fun with them!

 

I like the last one... Die Marienschlucht. I have no idea what it is... and cant make sense of the babelfish translation, but it looks pretty neat.

 

Translation is always a tricky issue. I had to translate a 25-page asylum application a while back for a law review article I wrote. Google translate got me about 80% there, but I had to heavily edit the rest.

 

Since a Norwegian cacher just helped us out with a Norsk translation of our earthcache up that way, I edited this one. Can't clean 'em all up, but that's one down, if they decide to use our translation.

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Here are a few that I've visited that would make any list proud!

 

White Point Hydrothermal Vents - GC1576V One of the two best caches of any type that I've been to (the other, Hot Rox is listed below).

 

Old Faithful Geyser at Yellowstone National Park - GC10HZW Its easy to get blase and forget just how rare it is to see a geyser.

 

Kruger National Park - GC1785M Not just cool rock formations, but amazing animals too!

 

Imperial Valley Mudpots - GCZBZ3 The earth is stretching, and this is what you get.

 

Lake Cahuilla - GCZ792 Ancient fish traps and travertine deposits with a rift valley to boot!

 

Kelso Dunes - GC13ENE One of the very few "singing" dunes.

 

Delicate Arch - GC177KB It takes your breath away when you make that last turn and there it is!

 

Dead Horse Point - GCZCZM The Colorado River and lots of red sandstone.

 

Inverted Topography - Snow Canyon - GCZ9C6 Was a "WOW!" moment when I finally got it.

 

Barringer Crater Earthcache A relatively fresh impact crater.

 

Niagara Whirlpool Earthcache A 2 for 1, with the thundering falls and the whirlpool.

 

Garden of the Gods Earthcache - GCND0E Fins of red rock, and its free!

 

EarthCaches I haven't been to, but really want to some day:

 

Burgess Shale - GC16D7W Been on my "To Do" list for a long time.

 

Waving in the Coyotes - GC10DM8 Amazing sandstone in an area rich in geologic wonders.

 

bingvellir - The Mid-Atlantic Ridge Of course, you would have to add in Geysir - powerful hot spring - GC1G4XZ while on this trip to Iceland.

 

Hamelin Pool Stromatolites - GC2F13P Living stromatolites!

 

Virtual Cache that should have been born an EarthCache

 

Hot Rox My other most favorite cache ever. Who doesn't like flowing lava??

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Burgess Shale - GC16D7W Been on my "To Do" list for a long time.

 

:o The Burgess Shale is there! I really hope my planned trip to Calgary gets through! :wub:

 

On a similar note: I would love to log an EC at Siccar Point, if there was one :(

 

Hey, that's my EarthCache that made the list! This EarthCache is at a display near Emerald Lake that talks about the Burgess Shale and you can look up at the mountain where the actual fossil beds are. Someday, I would love to take the guided hike all the way up to the fossil beds. If you are planning to do that, then I recommend creating another Burgess Shale EarthCache up there. I have a friend that was up there years ago and she said it was absolutely amazing. There is a slab of the Burgess Shale at the display by Emerald Lake, so if you can't make it all the way up to the fossil beds, at least you can touch an actual piece of it.

 

I agree with Me & Bucky that Garden of the Gods is worth a visit. and Þingvellir - The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is also on my "must do" list. I have actually been there before, but that was long before geocaching and even before taking some geology courses. I remember wondering why it looked like the Earth had just been ripped apart there. Turns out that's exactly what happened - you're walking between the North American and Eurasian continental plates. Surprisingly they don't really promote the geological aspects of this site much. It's far more known for it's historical aspects of being the site of their first parliament in 930 AD.

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The Eternal Flames is amazing.... I wonder how many of those are actually around?

 

There is a virtual in Washington state that is coal gas leaking. Flaming Gas

 

When we were in Washington, we saw a sign on the highway that said "Flaming Geyser, next exit". Well, we had to stop to see what that was all about. We didn't realize it would be such a detour as it ended up being about 15 miles off the highway. Got to this site and thought "there must be a cache here", but of course our pocket query didn't extend out that far. Decided to take a hit on the roaming charges and looked it up on the web browser on my phone. Discovered that there was indeed a virtual here, so we were able to log that. It just happened to be my 100th virtual cache too. Good memories!

 

Another site worth visiting is Centralia, The Burning Town. There is an underground coal seam here that has been burning since 1962. We stopped to check out this site on our way down to GeoWoodstock III, but that was before this EarthCache was set up. Wish I would have thought to make it into an EarthCache.

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The Eternal Flames is amazing.... I wonder how many of those are actually around?

 

There is a virtual in Washington state that is coal gas leaking. Flaming Gas

 

When we were in Washington, we saw a sign on the highway that said "Flaming Geyser, next exit". Well, we had to stop to see what that was all about. We didn't realize it would be such a detour as it ended up being about 15 miles off the highway. Got to this site and thought "there must be a cache here", but of course our pocket query didn't extend out that far. Decided to take a hit on the roaming charges and looked it up on the web browser on my phone. Discovered that there was indeed a virtual here, so we were able to log that. It just happened to be my 100th virtual cache too. Good memories!

 

Another site worth visiting is Centralia, The Burning Town. There is an underground coal seam here that has been burning since 1962. We stopped to check out this site on our way down to GeoWoodstock III, but that was before this EarthCache was set up. Wish I would have thought to make it into an EarthCache.

 

Wow... if I ever find myself in that general area... I will have to stop. That is amazing... and very sad.

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Hey, that's my EarthCache that made the list! This EarthCache is at a display near Emerald Lake that talks about the Burgess Shale and you can look up at the mountain where the actual fossil beds are. Someday, I would love to take the guided hike all the way up to the fossil beds. If you are planning to do that, then I recommend creating another Burgess Shale EarthCache up there. I have a friend that was up there years ago and she said it was absolutely amazing. There is a slab of the Burgess Shale at the display by Emerald Lake, so if you can't make it all the way up to the fossil beds, at least you can touch an actual piece of it.

 

Oh that's yours. Sounds like a great cache, and the Burgess Shale is such an important site :wub:

Is your cache accessible in winter? While it's just some 200km from Calgary I can't even guess what the roads will be like. You don't seem to be getting many logs between November and March. If it goes through my trip to Calgary would be in December :wacko:

 

Mrs. Terratin

Edited by terratin
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Oh that's yours. Sounds like a great cache, and the Burgess Shale is such an important site :wub:

Is your cache accessible in winter? While it's just some 200km from Calgary I can't even guess what the roads will be like. You don't seem to be getting many logs between November and March. If it goes through my trip to Calgary would be in December :wacko:

 

Mrs. Terratin

 

I don't think the roads are much of a problem since this is in a National Park. I assume they keep the roads clear, but I really couldn't say for sure. The road from Calgary to Banff/Yoho National Park would be clear as that is the Trans-Canada Highway (unless there is a blizard going on or something). It seems the biggest challenge in the winter is that the information signs get buried in snow! I wondered why I wasn't seeing any logs on that EarthCache the first winter until someone logged and said they had dug down through the snow to find the information signs. Crazy! In December, you should be ok though. Unless they get some kind of crazy storm, I don't imagine the snow would have accumulated high enough to bury the signs yet. You might want snowshoes to get over to where the signs are though. I do have a contact name for that Park, so if you wanted me to find out for sure, before you drive out there, just let me know a few days in advance. I can contact the Park and see what they can tell me about the road conditions/snow levels.

 

If you're going to Calgary, don't forget to stop at the Big Rock EarthCache as I mentioned in my previous log. It's an EarthCache and a Virtual, so you get a 2-for-1 deal and it's not very far outside of Calgary.

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Burgess Shale - GC16D7W Been on my "To Do" list for a long time.

 

:o The Burgess Shale is there! I really hope my planned trip to Calgary gets through! :wub:

 

On a similar note: I would love to log an EC at Siccar Point, if there was one :(

 

Hey, that's my EarthCache that made the list! This EarthCache is at a display near Emerald Lake that talks about the Burgess Shale and you can look up at the mountain where the actual fossil beds are. Someday, I would love to take the guided hike all the way up to the fossil beds. If you are planning to do that, then I recommend creating another Burgess Shale EarthCache up there. I have a friend that was up there years ago and she said it was absolutely amazing. There is a slab of the Burgess Shale at the display by Emerald Lake, so if you can't make it all the way up to the fossil beds, at least you can touch an actual piece of it.

 

I agree with Me & Bucky that Garden of the Gods is worth a visit. and Þingvellir - The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is also on my "must do" list. I have actually been there before, but that was long before geocaching and even before taking some geology courses. I remember wondering why it looked like the Earth had just been ripped apart there. Turns out that's exactly what happened - you're walking between the North American and Eurasian continental plates. Surprisingly they don't really promote the geological aspects of this site much. It's far more known for it's historical aspects of being the site of their first parliament in 930 AD.

 

Actually there is now a nice display....and of course you could always join a GSA GeoVenture to Iceland...and visit many EarthCache sites! :P

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Oh that's yours. Sounds like a great cache, and the Burgess Shale is such an important site :wub:

Is your cache accessible in winter? While it's just some 200km from Calgary I can't even guess what the roads will be like. You don't seem to be getting many logs between November and March. If it goes through my trip to Calgary would be in December :wacko:

 

Mrs. Terratin

 

I don't think the roads are much of a problem since this is in a National Park. I assume they keep the roads clear, but I really couldn't say for sure. The road from Calgary to Banff/Yoho National Park would be clear as that is the Trans-Canada Highway (unless there is a blizard going on or something). It seems the biggest challenge in the winter is that the information signs get buried in snow! I wondered why I wasn't seeing any logs on that EarthCache the first winter until someone logged and said they had dug down through the snow to find the information signs. Crazy! In December, you should be ok though. Unless they get some kind of crazy storm, I don't imagine the snow would have accumulated high enough to bury the signs yet. You might want snowshoes to get over to where the signs are though. I do have a contact name for that Park, so if you wanted me to find out for sure, before you drive out there, just let me know a few days in advance. I can contact the Park and see what they can tell me about the road conditions/snow levels.

 

If you're going to Calgary, don't forget to stop at the Big Rock EarthCache as I mentioned in my previous log. It's an EarthCache and a Virtual, so you get a 2-for-1 deal and it's not very far outside of Calgary.

 

Thanks a lot for your answer. When I got approval for this trip (if... :unsure: ) I'll jump into the Canadian forum and ask about road conditions and where caching is possible in early winter.

The Big Rock.. is big. Not having logged many glacial erratics yet this is also on the ToDo list now :)

 

Mrs Terratin

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GC1DCTT - Cave Hill Karst Sinkhole EC is one of a group of 7 EC's in Cave Hill Cemetery. All 7 are stunningly beautiful and within a half mile of all of them. one also doubles as a virtual. I'd recommend the set.

 

Hey that isn't too far away.... my wife and I will definitely be visiting those next year when we are hopefully living in Lexington. Louisville is just about an 1.5 hours highway.

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Here are a few that I've visited that would make any list proud!

 

White Point Hydrothermal Vents - GC1576V One of the two best caches of any type that I've been to (the other, Hot Rox is listed below).

 

Old Faithful Geyser at Yellowstone National Park - GC10HZW Its easy to get blase and forget just how rare it is to see a geyser.

 

Kruger National Park - GC1785M Not just cool rock formations, but amazing animals too!

 

Imperial Valley Mudpots - GCZBZ3 The earth is stretching, and this is what you get.

 

Lake Cahuilla - GCZ792 Ancient fish traps and travertine deposits with a rift valley to boot!

 

Kelso Dunes - GC13ENE One of the very few "singing" dunes.

 

Delicate Arch - GC177KB It takes your breath away when you make that last turn and there it is!

 

Dead Horse Point - GCZCZM The Colorado River and lots of red sandstone.

 

Inverted Topography - Snow Canyon - GCZ9C6 Was a "WOW!" moment when I finally got it.

 

Barringer Crater Earthcache A relatively fresh impact crater.

 

Niagara Whirlpool Earthcache A 2 for 1, with the thundering falls and the whirlpool.

 

Garden of the Gods Earthcache - GCND0E Fins of red rock, and its free!

 

EarthCaches I haven't been to, but really want to some day:

 

Burgess Shale - GC16D7W Been on my "To Do" list for a long time.

 

Waving in the Coyotes - GC10DM8 Amazing sandstone in an area rich in geologic wonders.

 

bingvellir - The Mid-Atlantic Ridge Of course, you would have to add in Geysir - powerful hot spring - GC1G4XZ while on this trip to Iceland.

 

Hamelin Pool Stromatolites - GC2F13P Living stromatolites!

 

Virtual Cache that should have been born an EarthCache

 

Hot Rox My other most favorite cache ever. Who doesn't like flowing lava??

 

I just saw those stromatolites on Nat Geo channel yesterday :D Does that count as visit :laughing:

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GC1DCTT - Cave Hill Karst Sinkhole EC is one of a group of 7 EC's in Cave Hill Cemetery. All 7 are stunningly beautiful and within a half mile of all of them. one also doubles as a virtual. I'd recommend the set.

There is another EC you can add to Cave Hill list. It is GC1CEHK. It is the original Cave Hill Spring cache and was developed by Cav Scout. All 203 of his earthcaches were archived, but can still be viewed and logged! If interested, I have a Bookmark list.

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GC1DCTT - Cave Hill Karst Sinkhole EC is one of a group of 7 EC's in Cave Hill Cemetery. All 7 are stunningly beautiful and within a half mile of all of them. one also doubles as a virtual. I'd recommend the set.

There is another EC you can add to Cave Hill list. It is GC1CEHK. It is the original Cave Hill Spring cache and was developed by Cav Scout. All 203 of his earthcaches were archived, but can still be viewed and logged! If interested, I have a Bookmark list.

 

Viewed yes, but I'd be cautious about logging them. Sounds like a quick way to have all his archived EarthCaches locked. Some of them have been replaced by new EarthCaches at those locations. Once a virtual cache is archived, I consider it gone. It's different than a physical cache with the container still left in place. If you visited prior to the cache being archived, it's different and should be logged as a legitimate find. Logging it after it has been archived seems disrespectful to the reasons it was archived (whether it is a Cav Scout cache or any archived virtual cache). That's my opinion at least.

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Viewed yes, but I'd be cautious about logging them. Sounds like a quick way to have all his archived EarthCaches locked.

 

What is the difference? If you are allowed to read them and experience them but don't log them they are essentially locked to you. I have logged a few older archived virtuals and can't really see the harm if you can still legitimately log them by finding the required site or info. I usually check in with the CO to see if they mind.

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GC1DCTT - Cave Hill Karst Sinkhole EC is one of a group of 7 EC's in Cave Hill Cemetery. All 7 are stunningly beautiful and within a half mile of all of them. one also doubles as a virtual. I'd recommend the set.

There is another EC you can add to Cave Hill list. It is GC1CEHK. It is the original Cave Hill Spring cache and was developed by Cav Scout. All 203 of his earthcaches were archived, but can still be viewed and logged! If interested, I have a Bookmark list.

 

There's a difference between "can" log and "should" log.

 

Archived caches are not automatically locked because some folks may have fulfilled the cache requirements prior to the archiving of the cache and just not gotten around to it yet. Once a cache is archived, it's done, it's not an active cache, and you shouldn't post a new find on it. (Nor should you direct other folks to do so.)

 

I'm not the cache police, life's too short for me to worry about how the way you're playing the game. But this forum is pretty actively monitored by reviewers, so I wouldn't be surprised if this gets cav scout's old caches all locked and possibly gets some logs deleted.

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Having just returned from a much-too-quick visit to Yellowstone, it is hard to single out any particular earthcache there as one to see before you die, but the entire area is indeed such a place. I could not think of a better tour of Yellowstone than the one that earthcaches (and virtuals) provided. Although we stopped at a few locations that had nothing to do with caching, by and large, the areas we wanted to see had caches, and caches took us to areas we might have otherwise missed.

 

635472d2-a610-4cc1-9087-24a969b54337.jpg

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Having just returned from a much-too-quick visit to Yellowstone, it is hard to single out any particular earthcache there as one to see before you die, but the entire area is indeed such a place. I could not think of a better tour of Yellowstone than the one that earthcaches (and virtuals) provided. Although we stopped at a few locations that had nothing to do with caching, by and large, the areas we wanted to see had caches, and caches took us to areas we might have otherwise missed.

 

635472d2-a610-4cc1-9087-24a969b54337.jpg

 

Yellowstone is definitely on our to do list after grad school. I missed a trip there with the pre-med group this passed year because I wanted to wait to enjoy it with my wife. :lol: Where was that picture taken?

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Where was that picture taken?

 

Canary Springs in upper terrace of the Mammoth area, somewhat between the main area of the Mammoth and Orange Mound earthcaches. We generally tried to hit the main tourist areas early, but by the time we got up to Mammoth (having been distracted by several earthcaches along the way), there were already groups of tour buses that made it a bit crowded. So we came back to it later in the day, after hiking in the Lamar Valley, and there was hardly anyone there. Timing is everything in many locations.

 

There is probably room for even more. There were a few spots that struck me as being great earthcaches, but my lack of geological knowledge (and inability to find much information relating to the particular site) will probably mean that someone else has to do them. The entire area seemed like the "holy grail" of earthcaching. I have not run across any similar area that is so rich in both numbers and experience. Do it before the supervolcano blows and ends Western civilization as we know it.

Edited by geodarts
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Where was that picture taken?

 

Canary Springs in upper terrace of the Mammoth area, somewhat between the main area of the Mammoth and Orange Mound earthcaches. We generally tried to hit the main tourist areas early, but by the time we got up to Mammoth (having been distracted by several earthcaches along the way), there were already groups of tour buses that made it a bit crowded. So we came back to it later in the day, after hiking in the Lamar Valley, and there was hardly anyone there. Timing is everything in many locations.

 

There is probably room for even more. There were a few spots that struck me as being great earthcaches, but my lack of geological knowledge (and inability to find much information relating to the particular site) will probably mean that someone else has to do them. The entire area seemed like the "holy grail" of earthcaching. I have not run across any similar area that is so rich in both numbers and experience. Do it before the supervolcano blows and ends Western civilization as we know it.

I could help you find info on the places you thought would be good. I ran out of time going to all the places I researched when I was there. I plan to go again someday and want a bunch of EarthCaches to find while I'm there.

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