The new geocaching program at Minnesota State Parks has been a big hit, and features information on Minnesota wildlife

The new geocaching program at Minnesota State Parks has been a big hit, and features information on Minnesota wildlife.

Minnesota State Parks have rolled out a new geocaching adventure, after introducing a geocaching program that was a big hit with park visitors. Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunt, where participants use hand-held GPS (global positional system) devices to track down a stash hidden in a weatherproof, camouflaged box at a location designated by latitude and longitude.

Since this activity has grown so popular, Minnesota State Parks decided to add geocaching to the many outdoor recreation activities available in the parks. The park geocache program is designed especially to appeal to kids and their families.

Almost 20,000 geocache finds were recorded in state parks during the 2008 Geocaching Challenge. In 2009, the program will have a wildlife theme. For the new Geocaching Wildlife Safari, the "critter caches" in all the parks will feature collectible cards, each with information on a mammal, insect, fish, reptile or amphibian that lives in the park or did in the past. A cache may occasionally include a "wild card," offering the finder a special reward.

All state parks are part of the Geocaching Wildlife Safari, but 24 of them across the state will be demonstration parks, where GPS units will be available to be checked out free of charge. These parks will also offer some "Geocaching 101" how-to programs to get people started in this activity.

Many of the parks will have multi-caches, where participants will find multiple boxes, the first ones offering quick quizzes or puzzles and the coordinates for the next cache on the route. All of the routes are fairly easy hikes, and are designed to lead people to interesting places in the parks.

The Geocaching Wildlife Safari runs May 2, 2009 through May 2, 2012. For more details, including a list of demonstration parks, go to the Minnesota DNR's geocaching page on their website, www.dnr.state.mn.us/geocaching/index.html.