Discovery geocaching at Crater of Diamonds
Most people come to Crater of Diamonds to search for diamonds, but the park has a lot more outdoor activities to offer, including camping, fishing, and even geocaching. Geocaching is an outdoor scavenger hunt that people around the world participate in and which has seen a lot of popularity in recent years. It is a great way to get out on a trail and explore a new area you wouldn’t normally explore. Crater of Diamonds has several caches hidden within the park boundaries for you to find!
Geocaches are hidden items ranging in size from micro to large. They can be hidden in plain sight along trails, in cities, and in every Arkansas State Park. Each cache contains a logbook and if large enough, may contain items left behind by other finders, called swag. Swag can include trinkets, playing cards, keychains, etc. It is encouraged that if you take an item from the cache, you also leave an item of your own. Sometimes there is no physical cache to find, just coordinates that lead you to a unique geologic feature. These are called EarthCaches.
There are many tools you can use to find geocaches. The geocaching website, www.Geocaching.com, lists coordinates to free geocaches that you can put into a GPS unit or the map app on your smartphone. You can also download geocaching apps to your mobile device, ranging from free, for limited use, to subscription-based apps that unlock coordinates for “premium” geocaches. The park has five ”premium” geocaches.
Crater of Diamonds State Park has two traditional geocaches and one EarthCache to find. One geocache, called Crater of Diamonds ParkCache, is part of a series with 51 other caches that can be found all over the state! This Arkansas geocaching adventure is based on visiting all 52 state parks. Once you find all 52 ParkCaches, the clues inside each cache will give you the coordinates of a secret 53rd cache located somewhere in the state. To participate, you can download the clue sheet at www.ArkansasStateParks.com/activities/geocaching.
If you have never geocached before and are curious how it works, the park often offers geocaching hikes on the Little Missouri Trail. Hike dates and times can be found on the Events calendar at www.CraterofDiamondsStatePark.com.
