Geocaching: Fun outdoor activity for kids, sandy, oregon

My kiddos spend a fair amount of time outside but I felt like we needed a new challenge or activity to do together. After a friend of mine reminded me about Geocaching, I downloaded an app, and set out with my 1st and 3rd graders to find some local treasures.

We started at a Eagle Fern Park near Eastacada and while beautiful, we failed to find anything… mostly because I had neglected to download my map for offline navigation and nothing would load. Rookie error, but take note if you’re headed out for the first time. Download a map.

We then went to our local Meinig Park and still found nothing. I had the map, description, clues… couldn’t find it. I marked it as a DNF (did not find). But we did find my sister in law and the kids’ twin cousins at the park so that was a fun surprise!

Feeling a little discouraged, we went to Wildwood Park in Welches. The kids found their first cache right outside of the parking lot.

We headed over the bridge towards the next location… following clues. But we were stumped!

We finally found it, logged the find, carefully hid it back in place. This was a great way to explore the outdoor with kids!