How to Go Geocaching — Treasure Hunting with Your Phone

Geocaching is a real-world outdoor activity where participants use a GPS device or smartphone to find hidden containers — called caches — placed by other participants all over the world. There are more than 3 million active caches hidden in parks, forests, city streets, mountain trails, and practically every other environment imaginable. There are caches on all seven continents, including Antarctica.

The activity is operated by a company called Geocaching.com, which runs the database of cache locations and the official app. Here is the basic idea: someone hides a small waterproof container somewhere, records the GPS coordinates, and posts the listing on Geocaching.com with hints. Other players use the coordinates to navigate to the general area, then search for the hidden container. When you find it, you sign a small paper logbook inside the cache and mark the find in the app.

Caches come in different types. A Traditional Cache is the most common — one container, one set of coordinates. A Multi-Cache sends you to multiple locations before you find the final container. A Puzzle Cache requires you to solve a riddle or puzzle to get the correct coordinates. For beginners, Traditional Caches are the best starting point.

Caches are rated on two scales from 1 to 5: Difficulty (how hard the cache is to find once you are at the location) and Terrain (how physically challenging the approach is — a terrain 1 is wheelchair accessible, a terrain 5 might require climbing). Start with difficulty 1 or 2 and terrain 1 or 2 for your first few finds.

The activity is completely free to start. There is a premium membership ($30/year) that unlocks more cache types and filters, but thousands of caches are visible with the free account.