Links & Resources

Geocaching Resources
Tutorials
Trade Goods and Signature Items
Clubs and Organizations
Mapping Resources
Lat/Lon Conversions and Calculations
Miscellaneous

Geocaching Resources

The granddaddy of all geocaching sites. This is where you'll find the heart and soul of the geocaching world. Be sure to visit the forums and check out the caches in your area.

Geocaching.com's Washington State Page: See a list of upcoming and recently-passed events, view the latest caches, see Travel Bugs on the move, and search for caches by city.
Geocaching.com's Washington State Cache Map
: Use this mapping tool to visually plan out your geocaching run.
Geocaching.com's List of the Latest Caches in Washington: Want to be FTF? This is an indepensible tool!

Navicache.com

The second largest geocaching site. There isn't much here for Washington State, but there are a greater number of listings for some other areas such as New York and the UK.

TerraCaching.com

A new up-and-coming caching site developed by Skydiver / Angry Kid. Were you addicted to the old Skydiver Geocaching Point System (SGPS)? Then this might be the site for you!

Buxley's Geocaching Waypoint

A great resource for cache maps. This site will make planning your next geocaching run much easier!

Buxley's Washington State Cache Map: One of the best sources for visually determining the locations of caches in Washington.

Geocacher University

A wonderful guide for all things geocaching, with many useful topics of interest to beginning and experienced cachers alike.

Today's Cacher

The world's first online magazine for geocachers!

ClayJar's Geocache Rating System

An online form to help you determine the proper difficulty and terrain ratings for your cache hides.

The Selector

Texas Geocaching's online applet that will generate code for your cache pages with standardized icons for common cache attributes.

alt.rec.geocaching

The primary Internet newsgroup for discussing geocaching. If you do not have easy access to a newsreader, then try this link to Google's web-based reader.

Tutorials

Paperless Geocaching: A helpful tutorial on how to get started by Clan_Barron of the Florida Geocaching Association.
Paperless Geocaching: Another take on going paperless from the New Zealand Recreational GPS Society.
Our "HTML Basics" Tutorial: Want to spice up your cache pages? Look here for some helpful tips.
Importing Waypoints to Microsoft Streets & Trips: GPSBabel's helpful step-by-step procedures for taking geocache data and viewing it in Microsoft Streets & Trips.

Clubs and Organizations

Idaho Geocachers: The site for our neighbors to our east. Many Eastern Washington cachers also frequent this site.
Oregon Geocaching: Visit the forums, check out upcoming events, or track your Oregon geocoins.
Portland Geocaching: The premier community site for Portland, Oregon.
MOOG (Missoula Organization of Geocachers): The premier communication forum for Missoula and other Montana geocachers.
British Columbia Geocaching Association: The official site for our neighbors to the north.
Calgary Area Cachers: Resources, articles, tips, opinions, helpful aids, etc., etc., related to geocaching within the Calgary area.
GeocacheUK.com: A little far away for those of us in Washington, but a very slick site composed of cache stats, maps, and much, much more.
Geommunity.net: A project dedicated to promoting and helping to build geocaching communities through peer support and collective development of technical solutions.
Links to other geocaching organizations: More links to organizations

Mapping Resources

GPS Coordinate Grabber: An online utility that allows you to grab GPS coordinates from any web page, then download them as a LOC file into your mapping software and your GPS receiver.
Washington State Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs): Free download of any DRG (scanned and georeferenced USGS topographic map) in Washington State.
Idaho Geospatial Data Center: Free download of Idaho geospatial data, including DRGs and DEMs.
U.S. Census TIGER/Line^® Map Surfer: Online maps based on the US Census Bureau's TIGER data.
TIGER/Line^® Map Helper: This page will aid in the generation of a proper URL to use the TIGER/Line® Map Generator provided by the United States Census Bureau.
LostOutdoors.com: Create an online USGS photo image or USGS topographic map with overlaid markers.
TopoZone: The web's center for USGS topographic maps, orthophotomaps, and aerial photographs of the entire United States.
MapQuest: Use MapQuest to find everything from airports to local businesses.
Microsoft TerraServer: High resolution USGS aerial imagery and USGS topographic maps. This link will allow you to search using coordinates.
National Geographic MapMachine: Find nearly any place on Earth and view it by population, climate, and much more.
Eagle Geocoder: Want to convert an address to a set of coordinates? This web page will let you.
USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS): Our nation's official repository of domestic geographic names information. Here you can look up a feature's location by state, county, and geographic coordinates.
GEOnet Names Server (GNS): Provides access to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's (NGA) and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names' (US BGN) database of foreign geographic feature names.
Geopainting.com: Want to create your own maps for upload to a Garmin receiver? Here's how.
Washington Department of Ecology Shoreline Aerial Photos: Aerial photos of the entire Washington coast.

Lat/Lon Conversions and Calculations

JeEep.com's Coordinate Translation: Translate coordinates (WGS-84, NAD-83, and NAD-27) to and from Latitude/Longitude and UTM.
Find Distance & Bearing Between Two Points: A helpful online utility for computing distances and bearings between waypoints.
Waypoint Projection: Another helpful utility for computing a waypoint by projecting a given distance and bearing from an existing waypoint.

Miscellaneous

Moun10Bike's Trail Maps and GPS Data: Maps and GPS data for a variety of hikes and mountain bike rides.
Zinnware's List of Cachers with the Most Finds and Hides: Manually updated lists showing those geocachers most addicted to this activity.
Grand High Pobah's Rankings for Geocachers with 200 or More Finds: Another ranking site that is semi-automated.
A Short History of Geocaching: May 2000: A brief outline of the events of May, 2000 that spelled the birth of our favorite activity.
The History of Geocaching: Another perspective on the birth and early history of geocaching from Scout's GPS Games web site. This page is biased against Geocaching.com and distorts many of the facts, but can still be a useful resource.
The First 100 Geocaches: A list of the world's oldest geocaches.
Locationless Cache Checklist (Categorized): Are you always wondering what locationless caches are out there and which ones you've already logged? This page will help you keep that information at hand for the next time you run across a target object.
gpsinformation.net: The #1 web site for GPS receiver and mapping software reviews, FAQs and information.
GPS Nuts: Practical guides, tips, tricks, equipment, software reviews, and other related information about GPS use.
Waypoint.org: A worldwide database of GPS coordinates.
Interactive GPS Satellite Prediction Utility: Want to know what GPS reception will be like in a given spot at a given time? This online application will help.
GPS Geometry vs DOP: Want to know what GPS reception will be like in a given spot at a given time? This online application will help.
Geocaching.com Random Image: Another helpful online applet for determining the effect of GPS satellite geometry on DOP.
Strong Engineering: Screen protection for your GPSr and PDA.
Letterboxing North America: The ancestor of geocaching, letterboxing uses hints rather than coordinates to lead seekers to hidden treasures.
The Degree Confluence Project: Pictures and stories from visits to each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world.