By Wes Skinner (NorthWes)
The AK State Parks 2026 Geocaching Permit Eduvent (GCBT0K9) is scheduled for Thursday July 9th at 7pm at a location out on West Dimond Blvd. Put that event on your calendar! It’s important for all geocachers here in Alaska to learn about the details of the 2026 AK State Parks Geocaching Permit, especially if you’ve placed a geocache on state park lands under terms of prior permits. The new 2026 permit details supersede all prior permits, and there are many new terms which all existing geocaches must meet within the next few months.While working on implementation of the new permit’s details, a series of questions have been collected and sent to AK State Parks for clarification
We’ve held off on the Permit Eduvent until all questions have been answered, but the need to discuss the permit details far outweighs the advantages of having all the questions we’ve submitted to be answered first. It’s to every geocacher’s advantage to understand AK State Parks’ new permit system and the land management details which affect geocaching. The geocaching game has recently been declared a ‘noncompliant’ use of Alaska state park lands, and that determination is driving a series of changes regarding how geocaching is allowed to be played on state park lands.
The GeocacheAlaska! Inc. forums have a very comprehensive explanation of the new permit, which can be accessed here. The most significant three items required under the new permit include a cap of only 500 geocaches total across the entire state, and a special size limitation with in Chugach State Park that allows only micro caches. Compliance with these two conditions is challenging enough. However, the State Park Rangers who are handling enforcement of the permit requirements have indicated that the annual owner maintenance visit (an already-existing requirement, which must be logged BOTH online AND via a physical log entry by the cache owner) is getting serious attention as well. Thus far, rangers are indicating a very low owner-maintenance compliance rate for caches previously placed on state park lands. The rangers are going to be asking for archival of all geocaches which have not had an annual maintenance visit by late this summer. Enforcement of this requirement alone could result in archival of a majority of geocaches within Alaska State Parks!
Please make your best effort to attend this eduvent to learn about how we’ve worked in an advocacy role to continue the opportunity to geocache on Alaska State Park lands, as well as learning how to comply with terms of the 2026 permit. State Park staff isn’t trying to eliminate geocaching – rather, they’re trying to ensure geocaches comply with good land management practices regarding private property which is licensed to be left on public lands.