Soap Lake is a unique lake situated deep in the Cache-Cadian chapter. The lake was formed by the Missoula Floods which played a major role in forming a lot of the landscapes in central Washington, including the forming of the Grand Coulee. The lake gets its name from the naturally occurring foam that gives it water a soap appearance and because the lake's mineral-rich waters have a slick, soap feel. The lake is approximately 2 square miles and 70 feet deep.
The lake's mineral-rich waters have long been thought to have medicinal value. In fact, it is said that local rival tribes would call a truce when they came to Soap Lake to relax and heal themselves and their animals. This legend appears to be quantified by quite a few Native American artifacts found in the area over the years. The City of Soap Lake saw the lake's mineral-rich waters as a tourism opportunity and promotes the lake as "Washington's Health Resort". Of the many different minerals that Soap Lake's water has, the water also contains ichthyols, an oil-like substance sold in Europe to treat infections and abrasions. The ichthyol in Soap Lake most likely came from decomposition of tiny brine-like red shrimp that flourished in the water from late spring to mid-summer. The high mineral content in the lake makes the water extremely buoyant, similar to the Dead Sea.
You can enjoy the view of this frothy lake while searching for the cache which is keeping a low profile under a great guardian.
In September 2002, a group of 19 concerned geocachers scheduled a meeting after hearing that the Washington State Parks was considering banning geocaches in the state park system. Out of this meeting, the Washington State Geocaching Association (WSGA) was "born" with its core values of promoting geocaching as a fun, family-oriented outdoor activity that increases awareness and appreciation of the environment and our parks and trails, provide opportunities for participants to enjoy geocaching and to socialize with other geocaches, educate park systems and land managers about geocaching and its benefits, increase awareness and support of the geocaching through interaction with other outdoor groups and the public, encourage low-impact geocaching and promote stewardship of our natural resources, and support "Cache In Trash Out" activities to help maintain parks and trail systems.
In 2022, the WSGA turns 20 years young. To celebrate this milestone, the WSGA is hosting a 20th-anniversary GeoTour. This GeoTour will give you the opportunity to travel to all corners of the Evergreen State while you search for 140 GeoTour caches. To make it easier to tackle such a large GeoTour, each of our 7 regional chapters will host a bite-sized GeoTour consisting of 20 GeoTour caches with the entire GeoTour consisting of 140 caches. To learn more about our GeoTour, please visit the GeoTour page on our website which you can find HERE. We hope that you enjoy getting back out on the road while touring around Washington State. If you have any questions about our GeoTour, you can reach out to us via the contact tab on our website.
