Every geocache find is a favorite, and every geocacher has their favorites. I have enjoyed many adventures while geocaching, travelling the world and seeing and experiencing things I never expected to see and experience, but there are some geocaches that stand out from the rest. Be it either because it leads me to an extraordinary view, along a stunning trail, provides me a interesting history lesson, or just demonstrates how much other geocachers also truly enjoy geocaching, these are some of my absolute favorite geocaches, and highly recommend them to everyone!
20 May, 2007 - It took me two attempts to reach this cache. The first time, I tried to reach the site by way of a US Forest Service road, but ran into a large snowbank that still covered the road at the summit of Hogback Mountain. I then returned the following day and parked at Vigilante Campground and hiked the 4 miles up through Trout Creek Canyon to this geocache. The canyon was absolutely beautiful! As I mention in my post, I have seen less spectacular vistas in our National Parks. I saw some mountain blue birds, chipmunks, and even a black bear. The geocache itself is a .50-cal ammo can that is easy to locate, but the real beauty of this cache is in the journey. I'm glad the snow blocked my path the first day, otherwise I may have never known about the canyon hike. GC12HV7 "One Grizzly of a Multi-Cache" - Montana
30 May 2007 - One of the first multicaches that I ever attempted, this multicache took me all over the Helena Valley, and more specifically, up nearly all of the tallest hills that surround the valley. The entire cache took me several days to complete, but they were all well worth the time and effort. It is still one the least found multicaches in the Helena area, which tells me that it is either a real accomplishment to achieve, or that most Helena geocachers aren't willing to put in the effort to complete a really good cache. (I think it's actually a bit of both.)GC1516B "The Teton Cache" - Wyoming
25 May, 2010 - While in Grand Teton National Park, WY doing some technical rock rescue and river rescue with the park rangers, I had the chance to do some geocaching. One of the great things about this area is that there are plenty of Virtual and Earthcaches, however, my favorite geocache was this Traditional geocache which required a nice hour-long hike along a dirt road, through beautiful aspen covered hills. The view to the west was of the Grand Tetons, and along the way I ran across some mountain grouse and a hawk. The photo shows one of the roads that I explored not too far from the location of this cache, just outside of the park.
GCK25B "Groundspeak Headquarters" - Washington
4 July 2010 - For the first time in almost five years, I was able to take more than a few days of vacation, so I decided it was time that I made it to Seattle to visit Groundspeak's Headquarters. Also known as "The Lilypad," or "The Center of the Universe," I've been wanting to make it to this location since I began geocaching. It was great that Groundspeak put on the Lost & Found Celebration Event which allowed so many people to make this find! My favorite part was seeing my daughter meet Signal, getting to know Arne, one of the Lackey's, and completing the "Discover Fremont Scavenger Hunt."
This is certainly one of my favorite non-traditional caches, and happy to be able to check a "to-do" item off of my geocaching bucket list!
GCK3QT "ALONE but not solitary" - Wyoming
This geocache caught my attention for the single reason that it is a Traditional geocache located in Yellowstone National Park. In 2002, the National Park Service issued a blanket ban on all geocaches. This lasted until October 2009, when the NPS published a revised guidance document. Now, the NPS leaves the decision on geocaches to the discretion of individual park superintendents. This particular geocache was placed in July 2004, and there isn't any information on the cache page as to how it managed to get published, but there it was, waiting to be found.
Aside from this geocache being one of the only traditional geocaches located within a US National Park, I really wanted to take this hike, which follows an old asphalt road along the Firehole River (my favorite river in the park). It is a beautiful walk (flat the entire 2.4 miles) and ends at Lone Star geyser. Nearby is a NPS register log, which serves as the geocache logsheet. Some lucky people are even rewarded with an eruption of the geyser.
GC4R2T4 "Behind the Lines" - Mississippi
While at Camp Shelby for some Army training in October of 2014, I had some free time to do something on my own. Unfortunately, Camp Shelby, like most other Army posts, is out in the middle of nothing-near-by, and I did not have a car. Fortunately, there just happened to be a geocache located on post (approved by the reviewer and with permission), but it had a Difficulty rating of 4.5 stars, and plenty of previous DNF logs. But intermixed with the DNFs were also plenty of "Found It" logs - most of which stated my expected sentiment - that searching for a small magnetic geocache on a tank is no easy task. Arriving at GZ, I spent quite a bit of time searching for the container. After about 30 minutes during my first visit, I gave up but returned the next afternoon a bit more determined. Still defeated, I sent an email to the cache owner requesting an additional hint, which he was happy to provide, and upon my third return to the tank finally found the container and was able to put pen to paper!
Sometimes geocaching can take us to some pretty interesting or unusual places. At other times geocaching simply provides us with the opportunity to practice patience and persistence. This geocache was certainly one of the latter, but I enjoyed spending some time crawling around an old piece of American Army history and definitely consider this geocache one of my "Favorites."
GC4ZGN7 "Wild Blue Horses" - Montana
Between Bozeman and Helena is a small town named Three Forks. This quaint little Montana town has three claims to fame: 1) it was a landmark location for the Lewis & Clark Expedition in 1804-05, 2) it is home to Wheat Montana (which makes awesome biscuits and gravy, as well as ginormous cinnamon rolls), and 3) it is the location of The Sacagawea Inn, which hosts a renowned Mother's Day brunch that people put themselves on a wait-list nearly a year in advance. But, Three Forks also has one of my favorite geocaches - "Wild Blue Horses." Out on a hillside along the two-lane highway, silhouetted against the western sky is a herd of blue-painted, metal horses, the work of master sculptor Jim Dolan.
These pieces of work are so realistic that if you just glanced out your window as you passed by, you probably not even realize that they are painted blue, let alone stationery and metal. The geocache itself is nothing particularly interesting - just a small plastic container placed under a rock near the dirt pull-off, but the view and the horses are amazing to look at.
This location is one of my favorites to visit in Glacier National Park. The geocache is a Virtual cache, and while living in East Glacier Park for several years, I used to come to these waterfalls often. In 2016, and again in 2019 I brought my oldest daughter and then my wife to GNP to visit some of the "best of" features and locations. This was definitely one that I wanted to get to and as a bonus, it was also a geocache!
Sometimes called "Trick Falls" or "Running Eagle Falls," this particular waterfall overwhelms the narrow gorge in spring with fresh snowmelt, creating one large and furious plunge. As summer continues and the snows become depleted, the water level decreases, and the water in the river soon stops plunging over the top and instead finds a hole that empties into the pool below. If you time your visit just right, you get the dramatic effect of both the upper and lower falls gushing with water - hence the name, "Trick Falls."
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