Geocaching

Geocaching is a form of treasure hunting using Global Positioning System (GPS) devices and Ordnance Survey maps to locate carefully concealed caches. Each hidden box (and some are very hard to spot!) contains a logbook to recount your visit, and often also contain all kinds of small 'trade items' left by previous explorers. Take something, leave something, is the rule. Back home you can log your find and share your experiences of finding them here.

Have a go
Several cache trails have been set up within the Yorkshire Dales National Park, with a seven-cache trail around the archaeology of Langstrothdale, and more discoveries to be made along the ancient routes of Wensleydale, in the limestone terrain of Malham Cove, in beautiful Dentdale and in Swaledale too.

The Pennine Way Geocache Trail has been designed for novices as well as seasoned pros.  There's a total of ten geocaches of varying difficulty located between Malham and Hawes.  Take it easy and look for just one a day or, if you're feeling energetic, the whole trail can be done in two days, but remember you'll need to have found the first eight caches to access either one of the final two caches. Crack the combination code and a final reward could be yours.

These are the geocaches; you can see them and the questions that need to be answered by logging onto www.geocaching.com/ and using the GC codes:

cave and karst     GC1P2JX
cistercian            GC1P2P3
sinkhole              GC1P2PT
hill of the winds    GC1P3F6
greenlanes          GC1P2JX
sssi                    GC1P2RK
devils causeway  GC1P2R6
turburary             GC1P3EW
Malham finale      GC1P3D4
Hawes finale        GC13EM

Pre-loaded GPS receivers can be hired from Grassington, Malham, Aysgarth Falls and Hawes National Park Centres along with a beginner's geocaching leaflet.

If you get the bug, then buy a GPS receiver for around £80 plus OS maps of your chosen area. You can also load the co-ordinates onto your own GPS using dedicated 'geocomputers' at the National Park Centres at Grassington and Malham. 

The Turner Trails Geocache Trail
Once you own a GPS, you can seek out our Turner Trails geocaches. To celebrate Turner's paintings and sketches, we've hidden two geocaches near Turner's actual viewpoints in secret locations in and around Malham in the Yorkshire Dales.

To look for them, sign in to www.geocaching.com, and search for the two caches' GC codes listed below or alternatively you can search for Malham and find the Turner caches by name in the list:

• Turner's Malham Cove   GC2V5H6
• Turner's Malham Tarn    GC2V5GE

Click here for more information from Yorkshire Dales National Park, or find other locations in Yorkshire on the international geocaching website (registration is free).  There are plenty of trails all over Yorkshire.  There are at least seven geocaches in Otley Chevin Forest Park and also a multi-cache! 

Try a series of geocache trails created by artists across North Yorkshire, called Geo Art Cache. You can hunt for creative finds among the spectacular landscapes of North Yorkshire, exploring new art interventions along the way. You can hunt out another Turner inspired geocache at Hackfall by searching for the Follies and Ivy cache series, based on the life of fictional Emily Ivy, a 19th century Yorkshire amateur naturalist, explorer and storyteller who met JMW Turner on one of her excursions into the woods. It includes a series of fantastical bird and bat boxes which form part of the trail and pay homage to the follies of the woods. There are six to find GC36JP3, GC36JN4, GC36JNB, GC36ARR, GC36JN0 and GC36JNY).

You will first need to find out the coordinates and clues for your nearest caches; the quickest way is to enter a postcode. Choose which ones you want to bag and then download or enter the co-ordinates manually into your GPS receiver. Check out the best way to get to the site using an up-to-date Ordnance Survey map and then off you go!

More serious geocachers can download the Geocaching iPhone app.

The Cleveland Way was the first long distance route in the UK to introduce a series of educational Earthcaches. Earthcaching, an off-shoot of geocaching , is treasure hunting for caches that the Earth has stored and, unlike geocashing, does not use stored containers; their treasure is what people learn about our planet when they visit the site.  Anyone with a GPS unit can try to locate each of these eight caches, collecting the geological and industrial heritage information (and photographs) necessary to 'claim a find', without having to leave the well waymarked trail.

These Earthcaches are listed below; you can see them and the questions that need to be answered by logging onto www.geocaching.com/ and using the GC codes:

1. GC1G4TX - THE GLACIER HAS GONE
2. GC1G4VA - THE WAINSTONES
3. GC1G4VE - IRONSTONE MINING
4. GC1HGB7 - ALUM WORKING AT BOULBY
5. GC1HNE2 - DEFENDING RUNSWICK
6. GC1JA3P - IT'S RAVENSCAR'S FAULT
7. GC1JNXJ - CORNELIAN BAY
8. GC1JNZV - FILEY BRIGG

Nobody has yet claimed them all while walking the whole route - a special place is reserved for their name in the "Roll of Honour", part of the Filey Brigg earthcache.