This topic contains 10 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by 
-
Posts
-
I thought it would be cool to have a place where we can all come to share stories of Earthcaches that really made an impression on us and why.
When telling your story, please state the GC #, so we can visit and see pictures, etc. and what made the Earthcache(s) so memorable.
Great idea, Anne! Thus far, our earthcache searches have been pretty much limited to our region and I know there are lots of other amazing ones out there. In no particular order, I’ll list the top three of our 30 finds.
GC19A4V The Weeping Wall by lagrac
Wow! Just wow! A person might *never* find that spot driving by here. We jumped the creek more times than necessary, but that’s part of the journey, right? We stood and listened to the cracking of ice echoing off the natural amphitheater, and noticed the ravine running back with the spring trickling down near GZ.
The wall of icicles is nothing short of awe inspiring back here. A Downy Woodpecker rapped out his tattoo just overhead as we captured images of the scene displayed before us.GC16KZC The Rock Elm Disturbance by Lostby7
We went for this one on a glorious day of fall caching. In retrospect, it’s amazing how many we found on that day, but this one in particular stood out for us. We found the others in the park placed by zuma along the way, and then approached the meteor site. It is a bit mind boggling to stand in front of something like that and consider how it came to be this way. Plus, I’ve been lots of places around the world, but never, ever encountered an “underlook” before!GC16E8C Big Spring Earthcache by lagrac
Even though the weather threatened, we really wanted to do this earthcache, and the weather obliged us. This is an incredibly peaceful and lovely hike through the bottomland forest. The tops of the hillsides are turning, but down along the creek, most leaves were down. Birdin’s favorite bird, the Pileated Woodpecker, was cackling away as we walked alongside the creek near the little dam. Gotta love a bird that even though big and flashy, remains secretive in spite of that crazy laughing call!
The stream crossing really showed its spring origins. After doing several biking caches, it felt wonderful, though Birdin’ noticed her feet had turned red and perhaps shrunk a size by the other side. We found the cave, had it all to ourselves even. The crows and jays were carrying on up above, must have been an owl somewhere, but Birdin’ maintained her focus.I haven’t made it to very many Wisconsin Earthcaches yet, but we go out of our way to visit Earthcaches while on vacation. A few favorite ones (in no particular order) are:
Earthquake Lake (GC112BZ) a 15,000 – 24,000 acre lake (size depends on whose sign you read) in Tennessee formed during the New Madrid earthquakes in 1811-1812. Reports during that time talk of the Mississippi River running backwards – it was, to fill up this lake when quakes caused a big depression here. More quakes came and the surrounding land was uplifted, cutting the lake off from the Mississippi. Now the river is several miles away from this lake.
Point Reyes EarthQuake Trail (GCNFRT ) which takes you to a spot on the San Andreas fault where you can actually see just how far the earth moved in such a short period of time.
New Orleans Levee Breaches Part I & II (GC127GG and GC127GN) which show the destruction that can be caused when humans build without taking geology into account.
I guess I’d have to say my favorite type of Earthcaches are the ones that show the power of Mother Nature and what she can do, though I want to get to more Wisconsin ones when the weather warms up a bit.
Thanks for sharing those more distant ones. Our great friends moved to St. Helena CA about 5 years ago, and it’s a dirty job, but I go to Napa Valley to visit about every 1.5 years! 🙄 They are so thrilled, because every time I’ve gone there before and they asked me what I wanted to do, I was just peachy with whatever. I told them I want to go geocaching at Point Reyes next summer and they couldn’t be happier.
There are a couple others there, Shutter Ridge and something else. Did you also do those?
When I was in the area in March 2007 the Shutter Ridge Earthcache didn’t exist yet. Time and transportation were limited on this trip, so the only other Earthcache I did in the area was Franciscan Complex – Alcatraz Terrane (GCZCPK ) which was interesting, but not on my list of favorites. I’d like to go back out there when I have more time to visit some of the other ones. There are lots that look pretty interesting out there.
Well… I started this thread, I might as well add to it.
One of my most intriguing EC’s I have been to is GCMYZ0 – That Old Sinking Feeling Earthcache in Gaines ville, Florida. This was only my second Earth cache ever. What a treat!! It is an enormous sinkhole nearly 120 feet deep and measuring some 500 feet across. A 232 step stairway allows visitors to descend into the sinkhole. It was like a whole other world down there. Also enjoyed a few regular caches in the park.
Another neat area I visited not that long ago was an area in Iowa. The EC was GC16H30 – Frankenstein Cave. If you look at the pics on the cache page the huge Rock formation really does look like Frankensteins head. We found a huge chuck of what looks like quarts, with crystals loaded inside. This ia a rather protected area and samples are not to be removed If you read my log, you will also hear about our memorable trip out of there. LOL
On our trip to Vegas, we drove to Utah to visit Zion National Park. here we got to see a really neat wind/water erosion process at GCZ5Z9 – Checkerboard Mesa. This absolutely amazed me that erosion could cause rock to look like this. It looks more man made.
There are SO many kewl EC’s out there and everyone in state (and those of you from out of state creating here) all are doing an incredible job at bringing us all to places we otherwise would not venture to. I have learned so much from my visits and have a greater love and appreciation for geology.
Ok mine is not a great EC but it is one I will never forget. GC1GRPB Cream City EarthCache. I was out making run at Gold Level when I wen tot do this one. The cache owner states he has the permission to use this area. However it seems the guy who gave the okay had a habit of doing this type of thing and not telling anybody, and to make matters worse he has since retired.
So, here I am ignorant of this, go to GZ and get the info (by the way some great history here) and I am taking a picture to post when a car pulls up ans starts asking questions. You know the usual, what are you doing type questions. Then the whole thing goes bad, see the cache is at one of the old buildings behind the VA Hospital and I am trespassing on Government property. Oh and he is Homeland Security.
Additionally he informs me that the photo I had just taken could subject me to arrest. He demands the name of who placed the cache and as you all know we never use our names in our ID’s, well I knew whose name was listed as the cache owner, but I didn’t think Pawn of Chaos was the right answer to give. Thankfully I met the cache owner recently and was able to give a first name.
Now I suspect this guy was waiting out his days to retirement and guarding buildings that have not had any activity in 30 years is pretty boring so I suspect I was his entertainment for the day. But after 45 minutes I had to delete the picture from my camera and was told to leave. Which I promptly did.
I have been approached by police officers in the past caching and they have always been pleasant in their approach. Not this guy, but then how many of us can say we have been detained by Homeland Security.
The cache owner has disabled the cache as he locates a new spot for it, me I will never forget this one
We found this one indescribably beautiful, 8O, but did make an attempt to describe it in our Dec 19th log: Olivine (Mg,Fe)SiO4 – DP/EC38 GC1M15H . Recently ranked among the top 10 global Earthcaches by Earthcache.org.
Quite difficult to get to – getting to the Island on years of saving up paper route money is the easy part.
Goosebumps in the sun!
@kansas64 wrote:
Ok mine is not a great EC but it is one I will never forget. GC1GRPB Cream City EarthCache. I was out making run at Gold Level when I wen tot do this one. The cache owner states he has the permission to use this area. However it seems the guy who gave the okay had a habit of doing this type of thing and not telling anybody, and to make matters worse he has since retired.
So, here I am ignorant of this, go to GZ and get the info (by the way some great history here) and I am taking a picture to post when a car pulls up ans starts asking questions. You know the usual, what are you doing type questions. Then the whole thing goes bad, see the cache is at one of the old buildings behind the VA Hospital and I am trespassing on Government property. Oh and he is Homeland Security.
Additionally he informs me that the photo I had just taken could subject me to arrest. He demands the name of who placed the cache and as you all know we never use our names in our ID’s, well I knew whose name was listed as the cache owner, but I didn’t think Pawn of Chaos was the right answer to give. Thankfully I met the cache owner recently and was able to give a first name.
Now I suspect this guy was waiting out his days to retirement and guarding buildings that have not had any activity in 30 years is pretty boring so I suspect I was his entertainment for the day. But after 45 minutes I had to delete the picture from my camera and was told to leave. Which I promptly did.
I have been approached by police officers in the past caching and they have always been pleasant in their approach. Not this guy, but then how many of us can say we have been detained by Homeland Security.
The cache owner has disabled the cache as he locates a new spot for it, me I will never forget this one
Wow, this is a great story! 😆 It made me laugh. I have done the current Cream City EC and I really enjoyed it. I would guess that this is a different building than when you did it. I can just imagine giving the name “Pawn of Chaos” to someone detaining you for national security! Thanks for sharing!
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
We’ve done quite a few good ones all over the country, but our sentimental favorite has to be GCM829 Shifting Sands Earthcache at the tip of Cape Hatteras in the Outer Banks. I’m not sure why, other than that it was on our honeymoon and takes you to the very tip of the Banks. The sandbar there is continually moving south, so the idea is that each cacher posts their most extreme coords at low tide and compares them to the previous finder to see the shift. Lots and I mean LOTS of fishermen there, but a neat place.
There are quite a few good ones we’ve done, but interestingly some of the nicest places have had the least interesting ECs. Some places that were just pretty or pleasant had better ECs. I liked GC1673H Godly Gardens for that reason. That one’s at Garden of the Gods in southern Illinois, a collection of sandstone spires and blobs not much different from a lot of the things you would see in the Dells. The requirements are pretty light, but you have to walk the trail to find them all. Actual interaction is a big plus.
GC15QNT Miners Castle is at Pictured Rocks on the UP North Shore, and while a PnG, takes you to the most recognizable feature in the entire park, and makes for great photo opportunities.
GC1CWXK Pompeys Pillar, GC1E6BV Colgate Licks, GC14VG2 What’s Behind Multnomah Falls and GC1BZ6R Haystack Rock are all favorites because they are either significant Lewis and Clark Trail stops or found along the trail. Multnomah is loved to death but still breathtaking, and Haystack Rock is another iconic view along the Oregon coast.
GC16PV3 BIG bog was found while chasing the Minnesota DeLorme with Zuma. The earth science here isn’t particularly interesting (at least to me), but the cache takes you out a mile-long perforated steel boardwalk into the biggest bog I’ve seen. Tamaracks and carnivorous plants were the big draw here.
Tah-Ne-Co, GC11WJ5, takes you all over Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. About a half-day to complete, but it really gets you out in every part of the park, from Bathhouse Row down in town to trails and the needle above town. Oh, and stop in at McClard’s BBQ while in town for a special piece of Americana.
Here in state we have done some lovely spots too. GC1GJ1A Van Hise Rock and GC1HM1D A “Gorgeous” Look at Geology: Ablemans Gorge take you to an area close to Devil’s Lake that doesn’t get nearly as much attention despite geologic significance. GC1A9G8 Driftless: Natural Bridge is another neat area with few visitors, and visited during our get-together for the big 10k. GC1FYE6 Cave Point is another iconic view along Lake Michigan in Door County. None to be missed. Some of the best are archived or currently unavailable, including the top of Roche-A-Cri and Parfrey’s Glen.
Lower Michigan has a couple great ones in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, GC12A9V Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes and GC1E0F2 South Manitou. Huge dunes in the midwest that left Zuma and I both huffing and puffing to the top, and the ferry ride from Fishtown to South Manitou is not to be missed.
Last but not least would be GC11M7T Acadia National Park EarthCache Program in Maine. This one cacn be completed in a day, but we did it over a couple while visiting all the major features. Something like eight stops? And you get to see nearly everything. Plus it’s the only EC we’ve ever done with a physical log (and a stamp Gwyn 😉 ).
For all that, there are so many places we’ve been to that would make great ECs but no one has placed one. They’re out there waiting!
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.