Final Months: Washington State Parks GeoTour

[+hydnsek]

It's official: Summer 2016 is the final hurrah for Washington State Parks GeoTour. All GeoTour caches will remain active through Sept. 30, and participants will have until Oct. 10 to submit passports for prize coins. There are currently 177 Silver (50 caches) and 34 Gold (100 caches) left to award. So start making your summer travel plans!

 

Once the branded GeoTour promotion on geocaching.com ends June 6, the dedicated GeoTour page with the cache list (the one linked above) will go away, but all the caches will remain active. Instead of the GeoTour page, you can view the cache series with our bookmark list, WaStatePks100 GeoTour caches, and you can download the passport, guidelines, and map on the State Parks Centennial GeoTour page or on WSGA's State Parks GeoTour page.

 

As always, you can see a list of finishers here, and the GeoTour statistics here.

 

After Sept. 30, some caches may remain at the discretion of individual parks and cache owners. But they won't be part of a GeoTour (even if the stamps are still there), and passport submissions will no longer be accepted after the Oct. 10 cutoff.

 

I will be working with the cache owners and parks over the next months to transition the 103 caches in two phases:

• On June 7, remove GeoTour branding and links.
  
• On Oct. 1, transition them to "regular" caches (i.e., remaining series content removed) or archive them, depending on CO and park preferences. Some caches may be adopted to new owners if the parks want to keep them but the CO would like to retire.
  

The State Parks GeoTour succeeded beyond all expectations over the past three years (it launched June 2013), and the State Parks deeply appreciates all the support it received from WSGA (sharing the cost of the centennial geocoins, splitting the GeoTour renewal fees, helping publicize the GeoTour), as well as the hundreds of hours volunteered by geocachers - the project manager (me), coin designer (NepoKama), and the 68 cache owners. This GeoTour literally would not have happened without WSGA's financial support and volunteer efforts. The State Parks also wants to thank as the 2,500+ cachers who have participated and shared their enthusiasm over our wonderful state park system.

 

The State Parks is so pleased with geocaching as a visitation and education tool that they are planning new geo-adventures for Fall 2016 and beyond - so stay tuned!