Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Geocaching involves inputting latitude and longitude coordinates into a GPS unit and using the information to locate hidden caches.

What we’re going to do is, we’re going to have a low tech version, too, where it will just be a physical description of how to get to the cache.

Chris Holmes, outdoor education coordinator for state parks, is talking about The Texas Geocache Challenge—a four month pilot program (beginning November 1), which brings geocaching into 12 Central Texas State Parks…and more people into the outdoors.

So, people—if they don’t have this technology—can still participate in the event. They’ll just have physical directions to get to the cache; and then they can still find treasure in state parks.

Don’t think the low tech version is without its challenges.

That’s what the fun part is—making these descriptions so that they are a little bit challenging. For example, it may be, make sure that you walk east on the lost pines trail for half a mile until you see the big outcropping of rocks. And the cache is within 300 feet of the outcrop.

As the pilot is successful, it will be expanded into more parks. Go to passporttotexas.org to learn how geocaching works, and how locating all 12 caches will make you eligible for additional prizes.

That’s our show…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Geocaching: The Low Tech Alternative Play Now | Play in Popup | Download