Geocaching

Geocache Adventure Package

Family time in the great outdoors couldn’t be more fun than a Geocache Adventure.  Use your own GPS unit or rent one from The North Face or Season Pass Office in the Village at Northstar™ to locate caches hidden throughout mountain.

• About Geocaching:  Geocaching has been described as a “high tech treasure hunt”. It is the activity of using a GPS (global positioning system) handheld device to locate more than 430,000 caches or treasure boxes, hidden in nearly every country around the world, from city streets to ski slopes to hiking trails. These caches contain treasure, usually toys or other little trinkets.
  
  
• Equipment Needed:  A handheld GPS device (i.e. Garmin), appropriate footwear or hiking shoes, and a trail pass.
  
  
• Cost:  Only $10 for a GPS rental and $5 adult hiking trail pass - kids hike free!  Simply purchase both at either The North Face or Season Pass Office in the Village.
  
  
• Skills Required:  None! We will show you how the GPS unit works. If you can use a cell phone, you can use the GPS unit.
  
  
• How It Works:  Cache locations are rated as easy (green circle), intermediate (blue square), or advanced (black diamond). You will dial the cache coordinates of your choice into the GPS, three- to four satellites will lock onto your position, then guide you to the cache location.  Sound easy? A GPS may get you within 30 feet of a cache, and then the real fun begins; searching around logs, boulders and tree stumps.
  
  
• What a Cache Looks Like:  Northstar-at-Tahoe™ Resort’s caches are rustic-looking ammo cans containing a log book and trinkets. See who has come before you and add your name to the log book, and please follow the "take-a-trinket, leave-a-trinket" rule. 
  
  
• Rules:  When you have located the cache please take part and sign our logbook. Also, feel free to take an item from the cache. If you choose to do so, please replace the item with one of your own. The item you place in the cache can be anything with the exception of food/drink or illicit, illegal and offensive material.
  1. Take something from the cache
  2. Leave something in the cache
  3. Write about it in the logbook

Geocaching is available only during Mountain Bike + Hike Park hours of operations. Please call 530.562.3663 for more information.

Geocache Locations

Here's a hint to the six Cache locations on the mountain. Coordinates are listed below and have been entered in each GPS unit that you rent.

• Cache 1 is accessible from right in the Village from Village Overlook.
  
  
• Caches 2 through 3 are accessible from taking the Gondola up to mid-mountain and hiking down Village Run. Mountain Bikers and Hikers share Village Run, please stay aware of your surroundings and off mountain biking trails.
  
  
• Newly added caches 4, 5 and 6 are accessible from the Zephyr chairlift.

Cache 1	Cache 2	Cache 3	Cache 4	Cache 5
Less Difficult	Less Difficult	Less Difficult	More Difficult	More Difficult
N 39°16.483’	N 39°16.204’	N 39°16.020’	N 39°15.490’	N 39°15.634’
W 120°07.314’	W 120° 07.170'	W 120°07.353’	W 120°08.410’	W 120°08.600’

Cache 6	Cache 7	Cache 8	Cache 9
Most Difficult	More Difficult	More Difficult	Less Difficult
N 39°15.809’	N 39°14.822’	N 39°15.073’	N 39°15.959’
W 120°08.946’	W 120°07.832’	W 120°08.314’	W 120°07.571’

More About Geocaching

Geocaching.com

Geocacher-U.com

REI.com/expertadvice/articles/geocaching+kids

Please call 530.562.3663 for more information about Geocaching at Northstar Resort.