By Mike Malvick (ladybugkids)

 My brother and I owe our sense of adventure to our now 91-year-old father.  We grew up taking road trips in a 1971 Chevy Suburban to beaches in Mexico and California, the Grand Canyon, the Colorado Rockies, grandparents’ homes in Missouri and Illinois, and many other places.  The past several years have been payback time when we take him places he wanted to go but didn’t have the time or the rig to go and sometimes we even take him places he did not know about.

In October 2026, we took him to Toroweap Overlook on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, which involves sixty miles each way of muddy, rocky, gravel roads with no services from either Colorado City, Arizona, or Fredonia, Arizona.  We spend the night in St. George, Utah, and covered both routes, finishing in Kanab, Utah, at the end of the day.  BLM and online resources recommend high clearance vehicles with four-wheel drive, but we left our Jeep Rubicon and Ford Bronco (we took two vehicles for the three of us for safety reasons) in two-wheel drive for all but the last one-hundred yards of the trip to the rim.  Access beyond the Tuweep Ranger Station requires a $2 permit obtained from the recreation.gov website of which only four are issued for any given day, so advance planning is required.  Overnight backcountry camping permits are also available.

The remains of Hurricane Rachel dumped a lot of rain in the region during the past three days and there was more rain in the forecast, which prompted BLM to say it was “not advisable” to try the drive due to slippery road conditions and flash flood potential.  However, the day dawned extreme blue, so we hit the road early with the hope of being in and out of the backcountry before more rain came.  The first twenty miles of the road from Colorado City were especially muddy and slippery and the Bronco with its shorter wheelbase tended to crab through the mud while the Rubicon tracked straight through it.  There were also numerous deep-water puddles to ford which provided some opportunity to wash off some of the caked-on mud while in transit.  All the wash crossings were dry, though they showed evidence of recently running.  As we continued south, the brilliant Arizona sun dried the mud (but not the puddles) and the roadbed became progressively rocky, so the driving became more pleasant.

We passed through fenced BLM ranch land and were surprised to see cattle grazing in the Parashant National Monument, which we later learned is jointly managed by the National Park Service and BLM.  The terrain began to feature sandstone buttes and become more rugged as we approached Tuweep and entered Grand Canyon National Park.  At Tuweep, the entrance of which is marked by a sign welcoming visitors to the “Greater Tuweep Metropolitan Area,” and a 10 mph sign, we found the population to be exactly zero as we searched for a ranger to show our permits to.  We continued on to Toroweap Overlook and met “Skip,” a National Park Service volunteer, who, being in the middle of a 60-day hitch, was very happy to talk to visitors, especially since we were the first people he had seen in four days after the last group of campers cleared out ahead of the hurricane remnants.  There is parking for low clearance vehicles three miles from the Overlook, but our rigs handled the steeper hills and slickrock terrain to the end of the road without any problems. 

Once at the rim, one of the local denizen tarantulas greeted us and my brother and I instantly reverted to our younger selves and picked it up to show my father who remained unimpressed.  We walked several hundred yards of the rim of the Grand Canyon, enjoying views of the Colorado River three-thousand feet below and even watched a group of a half-dozen rafts get spit out of Lava Falls rapids, while also snapping the requisite selfie to log “One Giant Step,” GC7D60, a 2002 virtual cache.  We ate a picnic lunch at one of the tables near the overlook while successfully fending off the Stellar jays and chipmunks.  After eating, we checked out the ADA compliant outhouse with “the best view in the National Park system,” according to Skip, if only windows had been installed.

With heavy clouds darkening on the horizon, we decided not to chance staying longer and reluctantly headed out toward Fredonia.  Our timing was perfect, because a Toyota arrived just as we were leaving, which left the area uninhabited for the newcomers.  Skip stopped us at Tuweep to get our impressions and tell us about the National Park Service’s volunteer program where people can sign up for assignments like he was enjoying.  After saying our “good-byes,” we left Skip and Tuweep, now population “1,” and raced the rain north. We experienced intermittent showers during the final twenty miles of gravel road, but nothing that slowed us down.  That said, it might have been nice to drive through a deluge once we reached pavement because my brother and I spent an hour and $42 at the carwash power washing the mud off the rigs before hit had a chance to set like concrete.

There are many other caches in the area on the BLM lands to the north for those with a sense of adventure.  However, the muggle majority make-up of the group and the uncertain weather window kept up focused on Toroweap Point, which we reached while thoroughly enjoying the journey and adventure in the Arizona Strip.

by GreatlandReviewer

I occasionally receive a “Reviewer Action Requested” log written to a cache page because a cacher feels that accessing the cache is “unsafe” and/or that accessing the cache may require trespassing.

Groundspeak’s Terms of Use state: “Presence of certain information within the Groundspeak services (e.g. the location of a geocache or Adventure) does not imply that accessing such location is safe or legal.” The Community Volunteer Reviewers do not review for safety and do their best to review for legal access based upon local knowledge of permits, no geocaching areas, etc. Known information about land permission is posted in the Wiki for Regional Geocaching Policies.

Stepping outside your front door can be dangerous (bears, moose, other humans, ice), and that is why Groundspeak makes clear to players that when they seek a cache, they are doing it at their own risk. The person looking for a cache is best able to assess their own capabilities and the risks of their own actions, e.g. the choice to go out and look for a cache despite their poor health, the way they choose to look for that cache (such as free climbing a cliff or tree), etc.

At the same time, the person placing a cache also bears responsibility for their cache and its placement, e.g., obtaining permission from the landowner, placing a cache in a location that could be dangerous (such as a mine shaft or avalanche chute), etc.  For cache owners, if a player gets injured seeking their cache because it was placed without permission or in an unsafe location, even though Groundspeak’s Terms of Use tells players that they geocache at their own risk, it is entirely possible that a cache seeker could try to hold the cache owner responsible.

So, be thorough and thoughtful in your cache placements. It is all right to have cache seekers push their personal comfort limits, but be mindful when doing so.

by Wes Skinner (NorthWes)

I’m looking forward to several upcoming events which you may have missed on your notifications.

One is an event being held in partnership with the Anchorage Parks Foundation, while the other is GeocacheAlaska’s annual Geofest party. The first event on our calendar is GCBZPM5 – 2026 Parks + Trails Recreation Fair occurring on Saturday November 14 from 10am to 2pm, at the Kincaid Chalet. This Fair is hosted by the Anchorage Parks Foundation as part of an effort to introduce Anchorage residents to a broad spectrum of nonprofits, clubs, and businesses which give event attendees support in learning about get-outside activities which occur in our city’s parklands. Admission is free, and the event itself is held inside the Chalet. GeocacheAlaska! Inc. will have a table at the event, where we’re going to talk with visitors about our geocaching game. In addition to hoping you’ll stop by our table and sign the event attendee logsheet, we’d love to have you volunteer your time to help speak to ‘muggle’ attendees about geocaching and how it’s one of the best ways to get outside and visit our city parks. Please visit the cache page to learn how you can volunteer to help!

The GCBZPKF 2026 GeocacheAlaska! Holiday Geofest! is being held on Saturday December 19 from 4:30 to 7:30pm. This free event features a full dinner, a Hot Cocoa
bar, a gift exchange, several incredibly fun games, and a fantastic fun fellowship evening with fellow geocachers. Take time now to visit the cache page to see all the
details, and enter your will-attend log so we’re prepared to take care of all who visit the Geofest!

In other news, work on achieving compliance with terms of the Alaska State Parks geocaching permit has continued, with the team performing cache compliance
audits continuing to put in many hours of work to review caches within state parks (especially Chugach State Park) and reaching out to cache owners regarding bringing
their caches into compliance with permit terms. While the list of caches within state parks is now under the 500 physical cache cap, we have at most 158 caches with
Owner Maintenance being logged on or after 1/1/26, of which only 60 have the current permit number shown on the cache listing. If you own a cache placed inside Alaska’s state parks, please strive to immediately perform the owner maintenance permit requirement by November 15th!

Additionally, please edit your cache listing to show the current permit number – LAS-35694, on your cache page Here is the requested cache owner maintenance logging language we’re requesting you to use (either as owner, or as a proxy performing the owner maintenance visit for the owner):

“Annual Owner Maintenance for Alaska State Parks permit number LAS-35694.  Cache container inspected and log signed, as required.”

or

“Annual Owner Maintenance for Alaska State Parks permit number LAS-35694 performed by pre-arranged proxy with (name of cache owner).  Cache container inspected and log signed by (your caching name) on behalf of the Cache Owner.”

We are very near the deadline where we’ll be recommending archival of caches which do not meet compliance requirements regarding owner maintenance.

 By Wes Skinner (NorthWes)

NEXT STEP: GeocacheAlaska Inc. is beginning the next step to help geocachers achieve compliance with the terms of the 2026 Alaska State Park (ASP) Permit which allows geocaches on land managed by ASP. This next step will involve using our review of the approximately 540 geocaches remaining on ASP lands to institute contact with geocache owners who have not brought their caches into compliance with terms of the permit, as listed below. GeocacheAlaska Inc. will be reaching out to owners of noncompliant geocaches using direct email contact, and will use social media to draw attention to the need to finalize compliance as well. This begins a process which will result in archival of geocaches which fail to meet permit conditions over the course of the next 90 days or so.

Of the 540 geocaches remaining on ASP land, only 67 have fully met the permit compliance requirements, as of the end of September.

PERMIT COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS

Three basic items; #1  and #2 are required for ALL caches: 

 1. Caches MUST have a cache owner (CO) maintenance log indicating the CO visited the hide*

2. The ASP permit number must be shown in the cache description and in the CO maintenance logs, and we are requesting cache descriptions be edited to read

“Placed under terms of ASP permit number LAS-35694” as part of an effort to ensure acknowledgement of permit terms.*

3. If the cache is in Chugach State Park, it must be micro-size (preform or smaller)

*Format required for CO maintenance logs (one of two versions allowed):

“Annual Owner Maintenance for Alaska State Parks permit number LAS-35694.  Cache container inspected and log signed, as required.”

or

“Annual Owner Maintenance for Alaska State Parks permit number LAS-35694 performed by pre-arranged proxy with CacherX.  Cache container inspected and log signed by CacherX on behalf of the Cache Owner.”

Note: If you act as a proxy, make sure you have cache owner permission. These templates have been reviewed and approved by the ASP Permit office. Note that the permit enforcement staff from ASP are looking for these formats to be used in both the physical cache log and the online owner maintenance log.

Fellow Alaska Geocachers – it is imperative that we act immediately to get our geocache placements on Alaska State Park lands into full compliance with these permit requirements! Reminder: noncompliance leads to archival of the cache.

by Wes Skinner (NorthWes) 

Please take time to read the update article on compliance with the 2026 Alaska State Park permit terms. More than 400 geocaches are facing archival over the course of the next three months if they’re not brought into compliance with permit terms!

If you’re interested in helping geocache owners get their caches into compliance, note that the Alaska State Park staff are allowing us to do ‘proxy’ owner maintenance visits on behalf of the actual cache owner. This means you can file a ‘proxy’ owner maintenance log when you visit
the cache (and sign the cache log correctly), as well as by filing the same log online (but only if you have permission from the cache owner!).

There is a requested format for how cache owner maintenance logs are to be written, which is detailed in the accompanying article.
Please update any owner maintenance logs you’ve filed online to meet the format as requested by Alaska State Parks. I know I’m sounding somewhat like a broken record as I continue to draw your attention to efforts being made to meet the terms of the 2026 permit. I will point out that for more than 15 years the Alaska State Park permits have required annual owner maintenance visits to be logged both in person at the cache and online on the cache page, so this is nothing new.

However, a review of how often that’s been done in the past shows an embarrassingly high lack of compliance on the part of geocache owners, which was noted by Alaska State Park enforcement staff (rangers and maintenance personnel) during their field visits to inspect existing geocache placements. We’re being called to compliance – which means actually doing what we said we’d do when we first put our geocaches out on state park lands.

GeocacheAlaska Inc. staffers have put in tremendous amounts of time in doing the review work and outreach necessary to help us get our geocachers to bring their cache placements into compliance with permit terms. As part of the necessary effort this review process requires,
a volunteer Auditor position serving as part of the Advocacy Committee was created. This Permit Compliance Auditor runs weekly updates of geocache compliance (using GSAK – the Geocaching Swiss Army Knife online application) to review cache placements for owner maintenance logs and for size compliance where necessary (meaning micro-sized within Chugach State Park only).

Our staff has reached out to Groundspeak Headquarters to review this process, and is gratified to find them in support of our efforts to maintain our opportunities to play the get-outdoors game of geocaching across Alaska’s state parks. As a fundamental part of the review process when geocaches are submitted to the local volunteer reviewer, Groundspeak requires that the geocache owner has complied with landowner / land manager conditions regarding the geocache placement. I’m calling on all of us to be found faithful in meeting this requirement to meet the permit terms with the geocaches we have placed across Alaska’s beautiful state park lands.

by Michael Malvick (Greatland Reviewer)

GeocacheAlaska! participated in World Postcard Day by hosting three events and mailing 148 postcards around the world. Ladybug Kids compiled addresses for events  round the world by reaching out to Event Hosts as their events were published and offering to exchange post cards.

The fun began with two “pre-events” held August 22nd, in Soldotna (GCBVH1R), and August 29th, in Anchorage (GCBVKY6), when most of the postcards were signed  by event attendees.  An additional 25 postcards were signed at the 2026 World Postcard Day Finale, (GCBY5YF), on September 27.. Postcards went to twenty-one states and twenty-two countries and have a geocaching.com tracking number on them. Geocachers from events at many locations are logging the postcards as they arrive. Their logs, many in foreign languages, may be seen on the postcards’ page. 

Many thanks to BirkenstockReport who designed the postcards and stickers, provided the tracking number, hosted the Soldotna Event, and supplied the colorful sharpies for the signing events! 

by Michael Malvick (Greatland Reviewer)

Each time a geocacher creates a cache page to submit for review and publishing, s/he checks a box next to the statement

A basic tenet of the Geocaching Hiding Guidelines is “by submitting a cache page, you agree that you have all necessary permissions from the landowner or land manager to hide your geocache at that location.”

So, how do you determine that? One way NOT to do that is place a geocache in an area just because another cacher hid a geocache there without verifying that cacher got necessary permission. This is because the first cacher may not, in fact, have sought and received permission, or, permission conditions and/or land parcel boundaries may have changed.

Your first stop can be the Regional Geocaching Policy Wiki which lists all the KNOWN locations caches can be placed, required permits, and areas where caches are prohibited. The Wiki is maintained by Geocaching HQ and the Community Volunteer Reviewers. If you become aware of an area where caching is or is not explicitly allowed in Alaska or Hawai’i that does not appear in the Wiki, please let Greatland Reviewer know through his profile’s e-mail or message links.

The Wiki also contains links to downloadable GPX format boundary files to use with Google Maps, GoogleEarth, Garmin Basecamp, and many other free mapping applications which allow overlays of the land parcel boundaries and geocaching pocket query GPX format files. Also included are links to several borough Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that include land ownership information which is useful for determining private versus public status.

Portable tools that work with Android and iPhones include the Acres and onX applications, which are available at different subscription levels.

Even more “how to” information can be found in the GeocacheAlaska! Eduvent Library. It is now easier than ever to know who owns or manages the land where you are standing with all the available online and application tools.

Make certain you know before you hide a cache and get turned back by the Reviewer or later have your cache archived upon the request of a land owner or manager who does not want a geocache on their property. If permission is received, get the permission in writing to document the permission in the event of ownership or management change. If an agreement is not confirmed in writing, it becomes hearsay in the future.

For more resources on researching land ownership, and how to be good supporters our local reviewer, check out the slide deck from the recent Reviewer Night eduevent: 

Reviewer FUNdamentals10012026

GeocacheAlaska!  was recently informed that AKDragonflyD, Danelle Roof, passed away on July 8, 2026, after a three-year battle with cancer. Danielle was very active in the Fairbanks Geocaching community, along with her husband Tony (FiremanAK) during the late 20-teens. Tony is also a former member of the GeocacheAlaska! Board of Directors. 

Danielle’s obituary in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner can be read here: 
Danelle Roof Obituary (1974 – 2026) – Fairbanks, AK – Daily News-Miner