UPDATE: 3/1/2024:
2019 was the 100th Anniversary of Michigan State Parks and we're still celebrating!. Join the Michigan Geocaching Organization (MiGO), the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Geocaching.com for the first official GeoTour in Michigan.
This tour was originally scheduled to run for three years, kicking off on Friday of Memorial Weekend in 2019 and continue through May 31, 2022. The success of this awesome tour has not gone unnoticed. On February 2, 2022, The DNR announced the extension of the GeoTour through September 24, 2024! Join us in making a final push to complete this very popular and very successful GeoTour before the sun sets on it.
Each geocache is in one of Michigan's state parks. The geocaches are arranged by MiGO Region, with twenty-five geocaches per region. The Ticket to Celebrate 100 is available for download from the DNR's Geocaching page. It explains how to qualify for prizes in each of the four regions and for the GeoTour as a whole.
Day use areas of state parks are open from 8AM to 10PM. Geocaching is limited to those hours. Entry into Michigan's State Parks requires a Michigan Recreation Passport. See the Resources section below for more information.
The sun will set on the MSPCGT at midnight Tuesday, September 24, 2024. The MSPCGT will go off the air as a GeoTour and the caches will disappear from the map. There is a lot of construction going on in our State Parks in 2024. Some of the GeoTour caches will have to be pulled earlier. The remaining geocaches in the tour will be archived October 1, 2024. Players will have until December 31, 2024 to claim any prize they have earned. Hiders will be contacted to request removal of the geocaches they hid unless they have made arrangements with park managers and have their own permit in place to keep the geocache in play, with a new GC Code.
Now for some good news: MiGO and the DNR are busy working on a new project that will kick off in the Spring of 2025, code named MSPGT 2.0. Are you interested in helping? Keep your MiGO Membership up to date and stay tuned to the website.
Cache:
This cache was hidden as part of the Michigan State Parks Centennial GeoTour, presented by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Geocaching Organization. Record the codeword printed on the log book and on a label inside the cache container to the appropriate box on the Ticket to Celebrate 100 form. See the instructions on the form to claim prizes.
This is a traditional cache hidden at the posted coordinates. You are looking for a Regular size container. Please return everything as good or better than you found it.
The Entrance Apr-Oct (R1), Parking Apr-Oct (PK) and Trailhead Apr-Oct (TH) off of Elm Valley Rd are only available April to October. From the summer parking lot, you will be walking 1/4 mile along a well-established, packed trail through a Beech-Maple forest. As you stroll you can hear a symphony of birds, bask in the sights and smells of spring wildflowers, or enjoy the beauty of fall colors as you overlook the Galien River. While you explore the cache location, have a seat and read about the history and uniqueness of the area. The cache is large enough for the 50 Cal. Ammo Can to fit inside and well labeled. The hint will give you access to the logbook and GeoTour Codeword. If you visit when the Entrance gate is closed, October – April, refer to the Roadside Parking & Trailhead waypoint. This limited roadside parking area is off of Warren Woods Road and available all year. DO NOT PARK in front of the closed gate, signs are posted. This much longer hike, Entering Warren Woods Natural Landmark.
Thank you
MaxB on the River & Ol,Dude
for creating, hiding and maintaining, and
iatsemedic
for becoming the caretaker this MSPC GeoTour cache.
Photo by Maxine Brown © 2018, used with permission
Warren Woods State Park Overlook
Warren Woods State Park:
Warren Woods State Park is a 311-acre state park in Berrien County, Michigan, near the town of Three Oaks. Located 7 miles inland, this 311-acre wooded tract is a complete contrast to the Warren Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan. There are no towering dunes, but also no crowds, overflowing parking lots, and filled-to-capacity campgrounds. Amazingly, the natural area can be a quiet spot even at the height of the summer season when rangers are turning away visitors at the state park. This park is open daily from dawn to dusk.
The park is home to the last climax beech-maple forest in Michigan, which occupies 200 acres. The virgin North American beech (Fagus grandifolia) and sugar maple (Acer saccharum) forest has specimens 125 feet tall and with girths greater than 5 feet in diameter. The remaining area in the park consists of floodplain oak-hickory forest. Because of the size and age of the trees, and the rarity of the ecosystem, the area has been designated since 1967 as a National Natural Landmark. Many of the beeches, with their temptingly smooth, thin, silver-grey bark, are heavily scarred by hand-carved graffiti, some of it decades old; however, this practice seems to have fallen out of favor in recent years. The park contains the 42-acre Warren Woods Ecological Field Station owned and operated by the University of Chicago where ecological studies are on-going.
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Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Woodland
History:
The woods are named for Edward Kirk Warren (1847-1919), the inventor of the featherbone corset (which replaced the whalebone corset with turkey bones and secured his fortune). Starting in 1879, Warren bought 150 acres of the woods setting it aside for preservation. Warren at the time was a partner of a general store in Three Oaks and knew that the woods represented one of the last surviving stands of virgin beech and maple left in the state. Everything else had been logged. The Warren Woods was leased to the state and recognized as a State Park in the 1949.
Map courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Activities:
Most visitors come to walk the quiet hiking trails, which run from the northern boundary on Warren Woods Road, with limited road side parking, to the southern boundary parking area, open April – November only, accessed off Elm Valley Road. The trail from the parking area is an easy walk to the Interpretive Station. In the middle of the park, from the north, the trail crosses the Galien River on a pedestrian bridge, where there are stairs that take you up to the top of the bluff and an interpretive station. This trail may be flooded at times. Birding and wildlife viewing are enjoyed by visitors while hiking.
Information:
For more information, reservations and a calendar of events, follow this link to
Warren Woods State Park.
Special thanks to
Simon Mates
(rip)
for help with this geocache.
Special thanks to Cold Cache Crew and Silent Whistles for the Southwest regional prize.
Resources: