Geocaching Takes Kids On High-Tech Treasure Hunt
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Camp is over.
The trip to the beach is done.
Are your kids saying their bored yet?
Less than one month and most kids will be back in school.
Until then, here's something to keep them entertained -- Geocaching.
What is Geocaching?
It's a high-tech treasure hunt. Using your smartphone, the Geocaching app, and your phone's GPS, you try to locate small, cleverly hidden containers called geocaches. It can be in the woods or in an urban area. Some geocaches are even underwater.
The Geocaching app will tell you the GPS coordinates of where a geocache is hidden. Then, it's up to you to use your eyes and investigative skills to actually find the container.
Most containers are filled with a log book, which you sign, and some trinkets. If you take a trinket, you are supposed to put one in its place and put the container back where you found it.
KDKA anchor Susan Koeppen went Geocaching with her kids and a group of other children. They found a big container hidden in a tree in Pittsburgh's Schenley Park. And, they found a small container hidden in bushes along a city street.
Kate Rothstein of Squirrel Hill introduced her four kids to Geocaching.
"If I say 'Let's go hiking', they say 'no,' but if I say 'Let's go Geocaching', they say 'yes!""
More than six million people call themselves geocachers and there are two million geocaches hidden throughout the world.
To learn more about Geocaching and to get the app for your phone, go to www.geocaching.com.
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