Tread Lightly!’s Tips for Responsible Geocaching

To view this information in a brochure format Click Here 

• If traveling by vehicle, stay on designated roads and trails.
• Follow best practices for negotiating terrain with your vehicle.
• Don’t create new routes or expand existing trails.
• Cross streams only at fords where the road or trail crosses the stream.
• If hiking, walk single file to avoid widening the trail.
• Spread out in open country where there are no trails. Spreading out, rather than following each other’s footsteps, disperses impact and avoids creating a new trail. If possible travel on harden surfaces such as gravel, slick rock or in sand washes.
• Use the “track back” feature on your Global Positioning System (GPS) unit rather than flagging and marking trails.
• Comply with all signs and barriers.
• Buddy up with two or three geocachers. Traveling solo can leave you vulnerable if you have an accident or breakdown. 

• Be considerate of others on the road or trail.
• Leave gates as you find them.
• If crossing private property, be sure to ask permission from the landowner(s).
• Keep the noise down.
• If hiking, be especially cautious around horses, bikes, and motorized vehicles. Stay to the right of the trail and let them pass. 
• If traveling by vehicle yield the right of way to those passing you or traveling uphill. Yield to mountain bikers, hikers, and horses.
• Keep the noise and dust down. 

• Obtain a map of your destination and determine which areas are open to your type of travel.
• Make a realistic plan, and stick to it. Always tell someone of your travel plans.
• Familiarize yourself with restrictions and prohibitions in your area before you decide where to place a cache.
• The National Park Service (NPS) has strict geocaching regulations. Obtain permission first before leaving a cache on NPS lands.
• Check the weather forecast for your destination. Plan clothing, equipment, and supplies accordingly.
• Dressing in layers allows easier changing to meet unexpected weather conditions.
• In addition to your GPS receiver always carry extra batteries, a map, compass, and know how to use them.
• Carry water and emergency supplies even on short trips.

• Avoid placing caches in sensitive habitats including wetlands, caves, steep slopes, cryptobiotic soils of the desert, tundra, and seasonal nesting or breeding areas.
• Avoid placing a cache or disturbing historical, archeological, and paleontological sites.
• Avoid “spooking” livestock and wildlife you encounter and keep your distance.
• Motorized and mechanized vehicles are not allowed in areas designated Wilderness.

Cache Placers

• Avoid burying a cache in the ground.
• It is the cache owner’s responsibility to maintain the cache and the surrounding area. If a cache’s area is impacted, confer with the land manager on how you will mitigate the impacts and seek their advice as to whether to relocate the cache.
• Never place food items in a cache.
• Don’t modify the environment for any reason, even when hiding a cache.

Cache Seekers

• Use maps to find a route that will minimize impacts. Note waypoints during your journey to assist you on your return trip.
• If you notice a path has started to wear in the vicinity of a cache, notify the cache owner via email.
• Practice “lift, look, replace” technique, if you lift a rock to look under it then replace it exactly as you found it.
• After you’ve finished searching for a cache, the area should look as though you were never there or better than when you arrived.

Minimizing Other Impacts

• Carry a trash bag on your vehicle and pick up litter left by others.
• Pack out what you pack in. 
• Practice minimum impact camping by using established sites camping 200 feet from water resources and trails.
• Observe proper sanitary waste disposal or pack your waste out. 
• Following a trip, wash your gear and support vehicle to reduce the spread of invasive species.