The cache is at the posted coordinates.
Feel free to sign the log before completing the challenge. Please wait to log "Found It" until after you've completed the challenge!
The Great Washington State Parks Challenge Cache
Challenge Requirements
- Find and log at least one cache/any cache within the boundaries of each of the 146 state parks listed above in the "Washington State Parks" table. The state park boundaries are defined by the maps provided by Washington State Parks' website. Each map can be found by clicking on each specific link below.
- There are 146 state parks listed above. You can choose 120 parks from those listed.
- Caches found prior to the creation of this challenge are allowed.
- Cache types allowed in this challenge are traditional, multi, letterbox, wherigo, mystery/puzzle, webcam, virtual, Earth, and event.
- If you have hidden the only cache in a state park you may use that cache to claim that, but it must have been hidden before the publication of this cache.
- You must make a public, shared bookmark list that includes this cache. The bookmark must include one (and only one) cache for each state park from the list above. The bookmark list should include the name and GC for each cache, the name of the state park, and the date it was found. When you complete the challenge you should have 120 caches in your bookmark list.
| The majority of state park are designated on the maps found on Geocaching.com |
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However, there are a few that are not. When this is the case, visit the state parks' page (click on the name of the state park above). You will find maps and directions for that specific . |
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The final for the Great Washington State Parks Challenge takes you to the first state park, Larrabee State Park. Larrabee State Park is located six miles south of the city of Bellingham.
Larabee State Park Historical Information
On Oct. 23, 1915, Frances P. Larrabee donated 20 acres of land to the State of Washington that would soon become the state's first state park. The donation had been planned with her late husband, Charles X. Larrabee, a wealthy industrialist and philanthropist, and Governor Ernest Lister. The donated land was envisioned as a scenic park and auto campground to complement the Chuckanut Drive section of the Pacific Highway, which was nearing completion.
Larrabee had been instrumental in the development of Chuckanut Drive. In the late 1890s, he began lobbying the state to fund the conversion of a rustic logging road that ran along the shores of Bellingham Bay and Samish Bay into a scenic highway. In 1909, the first in a series of legislative appropriations for the route came, and in 1913, the road was designated as part of the Pacific Highway, an early north-south route along the Pacific Coast of the United States.
The park was first opened to the public in October of 1915, to coincide with the dedication of Chuckanut Drive. On Nov. 22, 1915, the property officially became the first state park in Washington. Originally known as Chuckanut State Park, the park's name was changed to honor the Larrabee family on February 15, 1923, although Frances insisted that her husband would not have wanted such recognition.
In its early years, the park had limited facilities but quickly grew popular with motorists. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, emergency work relief funding from the Public Works Administration was used to construct the first amenities at the park, including a pair of restrooms still in use in the park's historic day-use area. In 1944, a distinctive bandshell designed by architect Earl E. MacCannell was built.
Frances and her son Charles later donated another 1,500 acres to increase the size of the park, which now stands at more than 2,500 acres.
Logging the Final Requirements
- You may pre-sign the physical log book in the cache container at any time, and while you may have others with you when you log the final cache, only those who have fulfilled all of the criteria for this cache will be allowed to log it as a find. Find logs by other cachers will be deleted.
- You may not use the final as a cache "find" towards the completion of the final. In other words, you must find a different cache in Larrabee State Park.
- After completing the challenge, post a note on this cache page that you've completed the challenge. Please wait until we have reviewed your bookmark list to claim this cache as found. We will post a 'Congratulations (cacher name)...please log this challenge cache as found' note on this page.
- When in doubt, ask. We can discuss it or even seek guidance from others, but the final decision rests with the cache owner.