Those of us ”bitten by the bug” invariably come to realize that one of the most rewarding benefits of geocaching is discovering new and interesting places the search takes us. If not for geocaching, we would never find some of these places.  Here is an example:

Recently, a buddy and I took a whirlwind geocaching road trip from the coast to Central Oregon, looping south to the Klamath Basin and back - in two days!

We began looking for caches in the vicinity of Trail Bridge Reservoir along the McKenzie Pass-Santiam Pass Scenic Byway. We found two caches in that quiet and serene spot. One had been placed there a few days prior and we were hoping to be the first finders – but alas, we were a day late! There were no fishermen about that morning, which made for an easier hunt. If not for geocaching we would not have known there was an access trail head nearby to a rugged section of the McKenzie River Trail.

Later, we explored the Sisters area to look for a couple of caches in the surrounding pine forests.  What a contrast to the thick, green coastal forests we left just five hours ago! One cache was placed by a forest fire fighter and had a Smokey Bear theme to it – an appropriate cache, since we are both foresters.

Over the course of the next few hours our geocaching hunts brought us to a quaint old German cemetery, the spectacular Crooked River Gorge, the Badlands OHV trails and the volcano-marred landscape of the Newberry Crater National Monument. If not for geocaching we would never have enjoyed the breath-taking views of this unique landscape from the top of a cinder cone!

Day two began early as we headed south to the Klamath Falls region. Along the way, we took a short diversion west to find a cache at Diamond Lake. There we were treated to a gorgeous view of Mt. Bailey with lingering clouds on its snow-covered peak – and nearly carried away by mosquitoes!

By early afternoon, we found caches at a wonderful viewpoint overlooking a crystal clear spring with pastoral views of snowy peaks like Mt. McLoughlin. Also in the area was the Upper Klamath National Wildlife Refuge famous for its diverse population of birds and an old logging museum at Collier State Park. If not for geocaching we would never have walked down to the headwaters of Spring Creek and seen that gorgeous blue-green water bubbling out of the ground.

The final leg of our geocaching spree brought us to the heavily timbered Lake of the Woods along Highway 140, in addition to the crossing of the Pacific Crest Trail and ending with a few quick caches in the Medford valley near the unique Table Rock mesa butte formations.

While this particular excursion allowed us to explore a large area of terrain over a short period of time, geocachers can also discover new and interesting places without leaving their hometown. In fact, many have found after geocaching a while, that they didn’t know their local area as well as they thought. I have lived in the Coos Bay area for over thirty years, but had never explored the nearby coastal dunes, until I became a geocacher. But that’s another story…..watch for it!

No related posts.

My bride and I enjoyed a 2008 summer vacation to the Bend area. We absorbed the sights and sounds, from the popular trails of Shevlin Regional Park in town to breath-taking views at 8000 feet atop Paulina Peak, the highest point along the rim of Newberry Crater. I found geocaches at these and other nearby sites such as Lava Butte, Lava River Cave and the High Desert Museum.

On one day, while my wife attended a meeting at Central Oregon Community College, I hiked and geocached among the myriad of trails in Shevlin Park.  The central defining feature in this park is Tumalo Creek winding through and nurturing a wooded riparian zone providing a cool reprieve from the summer heat.  One especially enjoyable cache hunt, Awaken Bacon, led to a rocky knoll affording a great overlook to the park. This would be an awesome place to take in a sunrise!

One of the more interesting caches was one I didn’t actually find!  The Lava River Cave Earthcache (what is an earthcache?) required walking at least half way through this mile-long lava tube. We turned back when confronted with a small opening where we needed to get down on our hands and knees to get through!  Not today!

I also really enjoyed the short quarter-mile hike out from the Paulina Peak viewpoint to the very edge of the crater rim to find the Almost 8000 geocache. Rugged rock formations out there on the edge! Love that tight feeling in my stomach peering down a steep cliff!

Geocaching with our grandchildren is great fun.  Kids just love hunting for treasure!  One of our granddaughters, who lives in the area, joined us for one night at our campsite at LaPine State Park.  We hunted a fun, multi-staged geocache within the park that required locating three preliminary caches before finding the final container.  These are great for kids because they build the anticipation of finding “the treasure” in addition to learning something new or seeing something interesting at each stage.

There is so much to see around Oregon’s high desert.  We’re looking forward to visiting again to explore more areas such as the Metolius region, Sisters and Smith Rock State Park.

Related posts:

1. Geocaching – Your new travel planner!