Geocaching at Gooseberry Falls

After the wedding, Jeannette and I hopped in the car and left the city for another city, Duluth. Let me tell you, Duluth is a quiet, romantic town, with many copies of restaurants from Minneapolis. You'll find Grandma's from the West Bank, and Hell's Kitchen from Downtown. So, at least you won't go hungry. The skies are clear, and the lake is cold. We had a fun time.

On our last day, we set out to find Betty's Pies. Find it we did, and stuffed ourselves before going to Gooseberry Falls. Now, this is how a state park should be designed. The visitor center was clean and modern. There were lots of educational displays around for people to learn about rocks and the rivers and the lake in the area. One display stood out as a banner in a few places. Best Buy has not been sloppy when it comes to marketing. Their green banners inform you about the Geocaching History Challenge going on at Minnesota State Parks.

What is Geocaching?

It's a good way to get geeks outdoors, that's what it is. So, you have a GPS, right? Well, you can find any point, as long as you can see the sky, if you are given the right coordinates. Geocaching at the State Parks starts off with a coordinate, you enter it into your GPS, then you go track it down, like a treasure hunt. Gooseberry Falls are one of the Demo Parks, so you can use a GPS from them if you don't have one. We borrowed a little Garmin eTrex unit, and set off. It lead us along a trail we never would have gone on, to a view of the river emptying into Lake Superior. it was a great view. Inside of a typical Geocache, you'll find a log book, and trinkets. Sometiems you'll also find a Travel Bug, which hops from cache to cache. The State Park caches also have a postcard for the park. You can collect all 72 and earn medalions. You can earn regional medalions for completing a series in a region. Inside the ammo box, which make the best caches, we collected our card, a coupon from Best Buy, and wrote our name in the log book. Since it was hot out, we had no water, and Jeannette was in flip flops, we headed back.

Geocaching isn't limited to Minnesota State Parks. Visit www.geocaching.com to see other caches, including ones with puzzles to determine what the coordinates are. If you want the coorinates to the State Park caches, visit http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/geocaching/index.html.