100 caches in 100 parks to celebrate 100 years
2013 is the 100th anniversary of Washington State Parks. As part of the celebration, the WSGA and Washington State Parks are co-hosting the Washington State Parks Centennial GeoTour, a statewide challenge featuring 100 new caches placed on 100 State Park properties. Geocaching households can earn a commemorative silver geocoin for finding 50 of the GeoTour caches and a gold coin for finding 100 of the GeoTour caches.
The GeoTour launches on June 7. At this kickoff event on June 8, you can find out more about the GeoTour, pick up your passport, and see the prize coin. The weekend of June 8-9 will be free days at all State Parks for National Get Outdoors Day, so you won't need a Discover Pass to attend the event; however, you will need one later to find the GeoTour caches around the state.
The GeoTour kickoff event for the North Olympics region is taking place at Fort Flagler State Park’s historic hospital building:
Please enter using the stairs on the western side of the building
The format for this event will be a drop-in, open house style. I’ll present the GeoTour information to you whenever you can stop by during the event open house hours from 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
There will be GeoTour info packets (one per geocaching household) that will include: a GeoTour passport, a GeoTour overview, a statewide GeoTour cache map, a WSGA membership flyer, a Fort Flagler map, details about potential future caches in Fort Flagler, and a complimentary unactivated trackable from the grab bag (geocoins, cachekinz tags, and travel bug tags). You’ll also be able see a silver commemorative GeoTour coin hanging around somewhere.
Once you’ve stopped by to visit, you can head out to find the WaStatePks100: Fort Flagler cache, adding the official Fort Flagler stamp to your GeoTour passport. (Okay, "heading out" means looking to the right of the event log on the same table!) In addition to the official GeoTour hide, I had hoped there would have been twelve additional new hides to find. Since they won't be published in time for the event, there will be a list of unpublished caches for those who are interested in finding and beta-signing them.
Fort Flagler is truly the hidden gem of the state park system. Consider planning your day to include a few hours for exploring the park before or after you drop by to sign the event log and pick up the GeoTour information. Bringing a picnic lunch to enjoy while overlooking the panoramic views of Puget Sound, Mount Baker and Mount Rainier is highly recommended.
In addition to geocaching, some other activities you might enjoy at Fort Flagler on the day of the event include…
- Hiking or biking the five miles of forested trails
- Boating (two boat launches and 256 feet of moorage dock available)
- Paragliding (or watching the paragliders)
- Flying a kite
- Visiting the park museum and gift shop
- Exploring the historic batteries
- Walking the beach out to the old Marrowstone light station
- Taking a guided heritage tour of the historic buildings and gun emplacements
- Camping (117 sites available March 1 – November 1)
- Staying overnight in one of the fort’s historic homes
Many thanks to Ranger Aaron for his enthusiasm about geocaching at Fort Flagler State Park.
Thanks to everyone who attended!