Perhaps the most famous National Park (and probably the one national park that has been visited by almost all the finders of the National Park Series), is Yosemite National Park. One of my favorite national parks, I couldn't think of a better cache to make my 200th hide.
New to the nps cache series by nsearls25, or want to learn more about it (including the history, and the best way to plan to find all the puzzles)? Visit GCA0X01 nps - information cache!
This is a puzzle geocache. There is no container or relevant information at the posted coordinates.
The United States has 63 National Parks. All of these parks have different beauty between each other. The oldest is Yellowstone (1872), and the newest is New River Gorge (2020). Each National Park has a 4 digit “Alpha Code.” The Alpha codes are made up of the first four letters of the park name. But if the park has more than one word, it takes the first two letters of the first two words. But there are some exceptions.
Examples:
1 word: Yosemite - yose
2 word: Petrified Forest - pefo
2+ word: Black Canyon of the Gunnison - blca
Exception: Carlsbad Caverns - cave
I will hide a geocache to honor all of these parks. I will do 6 groups of 10 caches. Each of these are a puzzle with 6 questions.
I used Wikipedia for this information, as it gives it all on one page. Also say in your log if you have been to this park. If you have, please post pictures.
FTF Prize:
This is 1 of 8 caches in nsearls25's nps series that were given away as FTF prizes at KCSearcher's GC8M906 - CCE: DeLorme Challenges + State County Challenges event. For those attendees that received this as a prize, they had an 8 day head start on those that didn’t attend the event. The prize winners were instructed to sign the log in the “Pre-Publication FTFer(s)” space.
However, for the FTF Hounds that were not able to attend, they too had the opportunity to be FTF on this cache after publication that was targeted for Sunday, November 6, 2022 @ or around 8:00 AM Pacific Time. All they had to do is find the cache and be first to sign in the “Post-Publication FTFer(s)” space on the log.
Thanks CarlottaP for helping check the puzzles.
The final container is at: N 37° 59.ABC W 122° 06.DEF
A. GC9614 is a virtual cache hidden in 2002 that requires an 18 mile round trip hike to get to on top of Half Dome. It has a D/T combination of 1/4.A (Found by this cache's CO in June 2020)
B. In 19B3, John Muir took a famous, 3 night camping trip with President Theodore Roosevelt. During this trip, Muir convinced Roosevelt to put the newly founded Yosemite National Park under federal control (which lead to the foundation of the National Park Service in 1916).
C. Yosemite's most recognizable landmark is Half Dome. The world's most famous granite dome rises over 4,8C0 feet above Yosemite Valley to an elevation of 8,846 feet.
D. The most famous of Yosemite's wildlife are the bears who live in the park. However, advancements in the past few decades in the park have reduced the amount of bear and human interactions, including bear proof trash cans, bear boxes around the park, and GPS and DNA tracking of bears. This has lead to less bears interacting with visitors, and staying wild. The bear species who lives in Yosemite are:
D=1 Polar Bears
D=3 Brown Bears
D=5 Black Bears
D=8 Grizzly Bears
E. Camp E is a campground in Yosemite Valley that was instrumental in the development of rock climbing as a sport, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Many rock climbers stay here before climbing up El Capitan.
F. California has about 7,000 plant species. Of these 7000, 50% of these species can be found in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and F0% can be found in Yosemite National Park.
Congrats to Psychoticjesters for the Pre-FTF!
and Congrats to RV CREW, Virgojams, and dkata for the Post-FTF!
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.