As I get this column started, I’d like to remind you all of my Patreon community. That community is a big part of this website. If you’d like to become a member, you can go to https://www.patreon.com/nickobot.
If you enjoy scavenger hunts, then you can go Geocaching! If you’ve never heard of what this is before, Geocaching is a game in which people hide containers of all different sizes and post the coordinates on the geocaching.com website for others to enter into their GPS devices or use the Geocaching app to go out and find them.
Geocaching began on May 3, 2000 in the United States, specifically in the state of Oregon. Dave Ulmer hid the very first geocache, a bucket in the woods near Beavercreek, Oregon. A few days later it was found and it didn’t take long for this idea to catch on. Within the first year, several hundred geocaches were hidden for others to find. Geocaching is free to play and with smartphones you don’t even need a GPS device to hunt these hides. You can create a free account on the geocaching.com website or on the Geocaching app. They do have a “Premium” membership that’s $39.99/year where you have access to every single geocache worldwide.
I was formally introduced to this game in March of 2014 by a co-worker. Since then I’ve accumulated 468 finds (as I write this blog). It’s a perfect hobby, as it has made me explore so many unique places that I would have overlooked and never been to if Geocaching hadn’t brought me there.
Geocaching aggregates personal statistics for each user. As fun as it is for me to analyze my own caching behavior, I’m also interested in larger questions about the game. Such as what places are more active than others?
Here’s some numbers I found while doing some quick research:
State/Square Miles/Geocaches/Population:
Alabama/52,420/13,635/5,193,088
Alaska/665,384/7,574/737,270
Arizona/113,990/41,925/7,623,818
Arkansas/53,179/10,569/3,114,791
California/163,695/124,496/39,355,309
Colorado/104,094/25,589/6,012,561
Connecticut/5,543/7,494/3,688,496
Delaware/2,489/2,445/1,059,952
District of Columbia/68/329/693,645
Florida/65,758/41,997/23,462,518
Georgia/59,425/11,149/11,302,748
Hawaii/10,932/2,124/1,432,820
Idaho/83,569/20,211/2,029,733
Illinois/57,914/32,898/12,719,141
Indiana/36,420/21,588/6,973,333
Iowa/56,273/20,781/3,238,387
Kansas/82,278/10,084/2,977,220
Kentucky/40,408/16,804/4,606,864
Louisiana/52,378/3,854/4,618,189
Maine/35,380/10,228/1,414,874
Maryland/12,406/12,606/6,265,347
Massachusetts/10,554/16,425/7,154,084
Michigan/96,714/40,931/10,127,884
Minnesota/86,936/28,200/5,830,405
Mississippi/48,432/5,168/2,954,160
Missouri/69,707/9,742/6,270,541
Montana/147,040/7,882/1,144,694
Nebraska/77,348/8,004/2,018,006
Nevada/110,572/23,150/3,282,188
New Hampshire/9,349/12,065/1,415,342
New Jersey/8,723/14,266/9,548,215
New Mexico/121,590/19,429/2,125,498
New York/54,555/35,238/20,002,427
North Carolina/53,819/19,051/11,197,968
North Dakota/70,698/3,400/799,358
Ohio/44,826/26,862/11,900,510
Oklahoma/69,899/13,091/4,123,288
Oregon/98,379/23,958/4,273,586
Pennsylvania/46,054/41,126/13,059,432
Rhode Island/1,545/2,957/1,114,521
South Carolina/32,020/5,240/5,570,274
South Dakota/77,116/7,778/935,094
Tennessee/42,144/16,671/7,315,076
Texas/268,596/70,778/31,709,821
Utah/84,897/33,574/3,538,904
Vermont/9,616/4,858/644,663
Virginia/42,775/13,715/8,880,107
Washington/71,298/29,749/8,001,020
West Virginia/24,230/5,902/1,766,147
Wisconsin/65,496/28,476/5,972,787
Wyoming/97,816/5,258/588,753
There’s a trend here, the larger states on average have more geocaches. California and Texas are the states that have the most number of geocaches hidden in the United States, while Rhode Island has the highest density of geocaches per square mile. This analysis isn’t perfect, but it gives some insight into where geocaches are hidden in the United States.
As far as countries go, the United States and Germany are the top two countries. But Canada, United Kingdom, and France round out the top five.
So download the app, create your free account and enjoy the fun! That is assuming you enjoy scavenger hunts.