Kickoff the 2024 summer caching season on the official KMTA GeoTrail!
Join GeocacheAlaska! and KMTA at the Tern Lake Picnic Area in the middle of the KMTA GeoTrail for a fun social event to celebrate the second year of Alaska's first GeoTrail. GeocacheAlaska! is providing boxed sandwich lunches to all attendees who have posted a "Will Attend" log by 5pm on May 31. Please post a "Will Attend" log and include the number of people in your party so we can bring enough for everyone! There is no charge for this event or the food.
Anyone who has completed the Passport requirements of the KMTA GeoTrail before the event may pick up their KMTA GeoTrail pathtags and geocoin at the event. You'll need to have submitted your online passport form or bring your completed passport with you to the event.
The KMTA GeoTrail has 23 cache locations including 16 traditional caches, 4 multi-caches, 2 field puzzles, and an Earthcache. One of the puzzles is the bonus cache at the end of a 5-stage Adventure Lab in Seward. The cache locations approximate the locations from the official KMTA Field Guide, which follows the history of the KMTA region from Girdwood to Hope to Cooper Landing to Seward.
There is no internet or cell service at this location! Make sure to download cache and event info and coordinates before you head out! We will have a small supply of KMTA GeoTrail passports if you need one.
Please bring your own chair for seating! This picnic area is a small lakeside parking area with no amenities beyond an outhouse.
Access to the site: If you are coming from Anchorage, do not take the Sterling highway exit. The off ramp is beyond the access road to Tern Lake, so you would have to go down the highway and find a place to turn around and come back. Instead, continue past the exit as if you're going to Seward. Then turn right onto the Sterling highway at the intersection at the bottom of the hill. Go past the road-side pull out on Tern Lake until you see the driveway on the left that wraps around the back of Tern Lake.
Bonus: There's a mini power-trail of Alaskan Cachers geocaches starting at the picnic location and extending south on the old Sterling Highway spur road.
This event has been approved for this location by the US Forest Service special permits office of the Seward Ranger District.
About the KMTA GeoTrail:
Welcome to a geocaching trail exploring Alaska’s only National Heritage Area. In 2009, Congress designated the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm (KMTA) region of Southcentral Alaska as a National Heritage Area (NHA). This designation formally recognizes the history of an area that has deeply shaped the legacy of Alaska and the nation. It is the history of the Alutiiq, Sugpiaq, and Dena’ina people—the original stewards and inhabitants of the Kenai Peninsula. It’s that of the Iditarod National Historic Trail, Alaska Railroad, Gold Rush, Seward Highway, and local industries that give KMTA its character. KMTA’s geographic footprint bridges Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound via mountains, glacial valleys, and productive rivers. Throughout this landscape are communities and stories that connect us to our past and future. It includes the small and vibrant communities of Bird, Indian, Girdwood, Whittier, Hope, Cooper Landing, Moose Pass, and Seward, and all the wilderness between them. As Alaska’s only National Heritage Area, KMTA aims to enhance, preserve, and share the region’s natural and cultural resources— in essence its heritage. Above all else, KMTA strives to foster pride of place and an enduring stewardship ethic for this special place. As you travel through the Heritage Area to complete this GeoTrail, we encourage to keep that stewardship ethic front of mind as you learn about and enjoy the richness of the region.
As you search for the geocaches making up this GeoTrail, you’ll be asked to complete a passport that qualifies you to purchase the KMTA GeoTrail Geocoin. For more information on the Passport and GeoTrail, please visit KMTA-GeoTrail.GCAK.org
KMTA field guide link: https://kmtacorridor.org/field-trip-guide/
