Via: The Geocaching Blog

When you see a blue question mark on the map, do you feel curious—or confused? Mystery Caches—also known as Puzzle Caches—can be intimidating. Some puzzles involve codes or ciphers. Others require solving math problems, answering questions, or reviewing the cache page for hidden clues.

Solving puzzle caches takes patience, attention to detail, and a willingness to try different approaches. We asked geocachers to share their best advice for getting started.

Note: Some of the responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

• “You are trying to find final coordinates. Knowing what you need in the end can help to get you thinking in the right direction and give clues to potential pieces of information.” – emilierene
• “First, put yourself in the creator’s shoes. Consider the meaning of the title and why it was placed here. Don’t overlook even the smallest hints.” – GC Gakujgn
• “Read, read, read… and did I say ‘read again’? Even I get caught up in the moment and adrenaline rush and still sometimes miss essential details, especially when you have to do translations.” – FindingNiels
• “We hold occasional puzzle-solving events. Everyone brings a list of puzzles they want help with. We take turns working on the puzzles together.” – Marguerite B.
• “Gradually accumulate skills and learn from others. Use the D-rating as a guide—D1 and D2 are usually suitable for beginners. Tackling a D4–D5 right away will probably discourage you and make you give up.” – Thomas T.
• “With puzzles that require full coordinates, look for patterns that produce the first part you already know. For example, if I’m solving locally and expect South 30°, I’ll look for ways the puzzle could result in S30 or ‘South Three Zero.’ Solving a puzzle that has stumped me for months is honestly one of the most satisfying things I have ever experienced. Sometimes it just takes the right mood, location, or moment for your brain to find the key to start unravelling it, even if you’ve stared at it for many hours previously.” – Nicole S.
• “I like to print out puzzles so I can make notes. When I’m stuck, I reach out to previous finders or the CO. I also bring puzzles to events to see if others have insight, and keep some in a folder to work on when the weather isn’t caching-friendly.” – Laura L.
• “Attend events and ask questions. Or check if there’s a puzzle group in your area (don’t forget online groups. We have two very active online puzzle-solving groups based in Victoria, Australia). If there are no groups, consider a puzzle-solving event. All the geocachers I know generally want to help out or learn!” – LetThemEatCache
• “There are so many aspects to geocaching; find the ones that bring you joy, and leave the rest for others to enjoy. If puzzles are more frustrating than joyful, put them aside. That being said, the more you work on them, the better you will get, which can bring you joy.” – gsmX2

Here are some online resources that may give you more tricks to try:

• Geocaching Toolbox
• My Geocaching Profile
• There are many more! Do an online search for “geocaching puzzle solving tools.”

Looking for more guidance? How to Puzzle Cache (Second Edition) by Cully Long—featuring over 300 pages of lessons, tips, and step-by-step techniques for tackling everything from codes and ciphers to math, music, and more—is available at Shop Geocaching

Via The Geocaching Blog

Whether you’re out on a hike or visiting a local park, sometimes you come across a spot and think, “That would be a great place for a cache.”

With the latest Geocaching® app release (version 10.7.0+), you can now record a hiding spot, add cache details, and submit a Traditional Cache for review—all from the mobile app!

Earlier this year we introduced the coordinate collector to help players capture accurate coordinates in the field. Now we’re taking the next step toward a more mobile-friendly hiding experience by bringing key parts of the Traditional Cache hiding process into the Geocaching® app.

Get started from the Hides tab

To begin, open the Hides tab in the app and tap the + in the upper right corner. Select ‘Geocache,’ then Traditional Cache.

Currently, Traditional is the only cache type that can be created, edited, and submitted from the app. Selecting another cache type will open a mobile web browser so you can continue creating the listing on Geocaching.com.

From the app, you can now:

• Name your geocache
• On the Location screen, enter coordinates or tap the bookmark icon to collect coordinates or choose saved coordinates
• Set difficulty and terrain ratings, and size
• Add cache details like the description and hint
• Add attributes to help future finders know what to expect
• Add and describe a helpful image (e.g. location or spoiler)
• Make sure your cache container is placed and ready to be found
• Submit your cache for review by a community volunteer reviewer

If you still need to place the container or want more time to add details, you can save the listing and finish it later. Edit your Traditional Cache in the app (Hides tab > Unpublished) or from your cache owner dashboard on Geocaching.com.

Ready to hide? Visit Shop Geocaching to browse cache containers in a variety of sizes, colors, and shapes.

NOTE: Creating a cache listing does not reserve or guarantee a location for your cache. To learn more about hiding guidelines, visit the Help Center.

By Mike Malvick (Greatland Reviewer / Ladybugkids)

• Ideally, caches should not be disabled long term. The Hiding Guidelines state “A cache page can stay disabled for a reasonable amount of time – generally up to four weeks.”  
• If the cache owner is active and responsive, it is the Reviewer’s discretion to decide what the maximum length of time the cache remains disabled. For inactive or unresponsive cache owners, the 4 week guidance should be applied.  Reviewer discretion may also be applied for caches in remote locations (mountains, coastal islands, etc.) where seasonal conditions are a factor.

By Wes Skinner (NorthWes)

Greetings from Wes Skinner (NorthWes). It’s been an exciting start to 2026 for me as I’ve stepped back into the role of President for GeocacheAlaska! Inc.’s Board of Directors. I’m looking forward to writing an article together with some photos that humbly shares the fun I’ve  had recently while traveling out of state, but right now I want to focus your attention on matters of immediate concern right here in Alaska.

I’m sure you’ve received email notifications about the various events coming up soon. Ranging from the fun coffeehouse events happening in Chugiak and at the Tudor to Muldoon curve, all the way over to the traditional series of events we see around this time of year, there’s plenty of opportunities to fit in a fun event find while making new friends and seeing familiar faces at these quick meet-up events. Upcoming are a dozen events so far later this month, including a Valentine’s Day celebration event, a President’s Day event, a CITO event (out at Chugiak HS), and two events featuring the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous! The opportunity to earn the first season CITO event souvenir can be fulfilled at a second CITO Event to be held on March 28 the at Chugiak HS as well. Stay tuned to the events coming, so you can stay in touch with your geocaching buddies and build your find count the easy way in Alaska’s wintertime.

This year will be bringing a new focus on Eduvents hosted by  GeocacheAlaska! Inc. as well. Eduvents used to be a monthly occurrence pre-pandemic, and we’re purposing to bring that learning focus back to our geocaching community’s attention. A broad array of topics are being developed for presentations, and we’d love to hear from you about areas where you’d like a bit of classroom learning opportunities to help you grow in the get-outside game of geocaching. Stay tuned to see that’s coming with Eduvents!

Since September of 2025 I’ve been in ongoing conversation with the Alaska Department of Natural Resource’s permitting office, seeking to renew GeocacheAlaska! Inc.’s permit to play the geocaching game in Alaska State Parks. The past three 5-year permits were approved quickly and with minimal fuss, but this year’s application process has encountered the results of significant upgrades to DNR’s permitting process that were made statewide in 2023. As a result, the permit’s cost has risen significantly and the conditions of the permit have been extensively modified, while the term of the permit has been shortened to 3 years. It’s been an extensive deep-depth review of how geocaching impacts Alaska State Parks. We’re in the final days of discussion regarding how to get our permit approved, and I’ll be keeping you updated on how the  new permit’s terms and conditions will impact geocaching in Alaska State Parks. Watch your emails and our social media updates to learn more as the permit gets finalized in the coming week’s time.

By Mike Malvick (Greatland Reviewer/LadybugKids)

In prior Reviewer columns, I have discussed the “sweeping” process of looking at long disabled caches and caches with a growing list of “didn’t find it” logs. My curiosity was piqued about the archival rates (Cache Owner plus Reviewer generated) for various regions of the Alaska, so using Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK) and a database of all caches ever published in Alaska, I generated the following statistics after dividing the state with an east/west line drawn roughly through Cantwell.

Looking at my more than fifteen-year tenure as a Community Volunteer Reviewer beginning in July 2010, reveals the following:

• North of the line, 783 caches out of 2242 caches were archived, or 34.9%.
• South of the line, 5187 caches out of 11358 caches were archived, or 45.6%.
• TOTAL: 5970 caches out of 13600 caches were archived, or 43.8%.

Looking at geocaching statistics dating back to the beginning of geocaching in Alaska in year 2000, including caches published and archived by my predecessors erik88l-r and Crow T Robot, the numbers look like this:

• North of the line, 794 caches out of 2250 caches were archived, or 35.3%.
• South of the line, 5955 caches out of 12089 caches were archived, or 49.3%.
• TOTAL: 6749 caches out of 14339 caches were archived, or 47.1%.

So, overall archival rates across Alaska have slightly decreased during the past fifteen years. Of the caches logged by my player account, which has been active for 21 years and 53.7% of the finds are outside of Alaska, 52.6% have been archived, indicating that Alaska has a lower archival rate than many areas where I have cached.

I do my best to be impartial when sweeping caches, even eliciting comments from cachers that are amused about my player account’s (Ladybug Kids) caches receiving Reviewer Notes. Players may e-mail or message me through my profile if they have a question about something I did as a Reviewer. I may or may not be able to directly answer the question depending upon the need to comply with Geocaching HQ confidentiality policy. If you are unsatisfied with the response I provide, you may contact Geocaching HQ via the Help Center’s Contact Us link.