by Wes Skinner (NorthWes)
This spring, GeocacheAlaska! Inc. (GCAK) was again able to complete negotiations for a new permit from Alaska State Parks (ASP) allowing geocaches to be placed in state parks. In past years, the ASP permit was fairly simple and very inexpensive, with the only major requirements being that containers were labeled as geocaches in compliance with the ASP permit, and that the cache owner would perform an annual cache maintenance visit and log that visit both in the physical logsheet and in the online cache page.
The 2026 permit has many new requirements. The most significant changes require that no more than 500 geocaches total be placed on parklands statewide, that geocaches within Chugach State Park would have containers no larger than micros (preforms allowed), and that no caches may be placed in ASP campgrounds. The permit emphasizes the requirement for an annual owner maintenance visit, and requires immediate archival at year end for any cache without an owner maintenance visit. The permit cost came to a total of $1,350 in order to allow geocaching on ASP lands in all five regions across the entire state of Alaska. Initially, the permit was only for 2026, but our Advocacy Committee was successful in negotiating extension of the permit to 3 years (to the end of 2028) for the same cost. However, hundreds of caches must be archived to meet the new limits.
We’re engaged now in efforts to comply with the new 500 cache limit statewide, and the new size restriction on caches located within Chugach State Park. Please take time to visit our GCAK website’s Advocacy section to learn more about the new permit and its requirements. It is imperative for cache owners with caches on ASP lands to come into compliance by the end of August 2026, in order to help us with reports due to ASP by year end! We are working very very hard at keeping our geocaching game alive on state park lands, and need everyone’s help in bringing their cache placements into compliance.
As president, I’m calling on cache owners to archive immediately those caches which are outside of the current permit’s size requirements for Chugach State Park, and/or which haven’t had an owner maintenance visit in the past year.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the tremendous workload the terms of this new permit has placed on our Groundspeak Community Volunteer Greatland Reviewer. Mike Malvick is striving to help cache owners achieve compliance with the new permit, at a cost of countless hours of communication with cache owners. Additionally, GCAK’s webmaster Scott Aleckson has poured dozens of hours and tons of creativity into establishing our information pages on our website regarding the new permit.
Watch notifications for upcoming Eduvents which will walk attendees through the permit requirements, and how we can meet them effectively by the end of August 2026.