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Aurora Challenge Trail: Find Alaska Outside Mystery Cache

Hidden : 10/20/2025
Difficulty:
4 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:


Welcome to the Aurora Challenge Trail! 
#39:Find Alaska Outside
Find caches in US States that when combined by square miles add up to more than Alaska's square miles!


This series of challenge caches was placed by volunteers who are also proud members of GeocacheAlaska! 

The cache IS at the listed coordinates!

To qualify for this cache, you need to have found caches in enough US States, not including Alaska, to match the total square miles of Alaska: 570,640.95. This means that if you have found caches in Oregon (95,988.01), California (155,779.22), and Washington (66,455.52), you'd have 318,222.75 and would NOT qualify. You'd need to find at least one more state (Texas) to qualify.  

Credit for this idea goes to GC9NW86 who describes it like this: 

  • Challenge to find caches in States, Territories & Districts. A find is worth the combined area of the legal entity. 
    • A find in Oregon is worth 95,988.01 sq. miles, while a find in Guam is worth 209.80 sq. miles
  • To qualify you need an area equal to greater than the of the combined area of Alaska, which is 570,640.95. 
    • This can be done in as few as 4 states
  • Source wikipedia at the time of publishing:  In sq. Miles
     Alaska 570,640.95 
     Texas 261,231.71 
     California 155,779.22 
     Montana 145,545.80 
     New Mexico 121,298.15 
     Arizona 113,594.08 
     Nevada 109,781.18 
     Colorado 103,641.89 
     Oregon 95,988.01 
     Wyoming 97,093.14 
     Michigan 56,538.90 
     Minnesota 79,626.74 
     Utah 82,169.62 
     Idaho 82,643.12 
     Kansas 81,758.72 
     Nebraska 76,824.17 
     South Dakota 75,811.00 
     Washington 66,455.52 
     North Dakota 69,000.80 
     Oklahoma 68,594.92 
     Missouri 68,741.52 
     Florida 53,624.76 
     Wisconsin 54,157.80 
     Georgia 57,513.49 
     Illinois 55,518.93 
     Iowa 55,857.13 
     New York 47,126.40 
     North Carolina 48,617.91 
     Arkansas 52,035.48 
     Alabama 50,645.33 
     Louisiana 43,203.90 
     Mississippi 46,923.27 
     Pennsylvania 44,742.70 
     Ohio 40,860.69 
     Virginia 39,490.09 
     Tennessee 41,234.90 
     Kentucky 39,486.34 
     Indiana 35,826.11 
     Maine 30,842.92 
     South Carolina 30,060.70 
     West Virginia 24,038.21 
     Maryland 9,707.24 
     Hawaii 6,422.63 
     Massachusetts 7,800.06 
     Vermont 9,216.66 
     New Hampshire 8,952.65 
     New Jersey 7,354.22 
     Connecticut 4,842.36 
     Delaware 1,948.54 
     Rhode Island 1,033.81 
     District of Columbia 61.05 
     Puerto Rico 3,423.78 
     Northern Mariana Islands 182.33 
     United States Virgin Islands 134.32 
     American Samoa 76.46 
     Guam 209.80 
    Minor Outlying Islands 16.00 
    Total US 3,535,948.13

    *Land area continues to vary over time; unless it makes a difference in your calculations, we will use these numbers

 
If you do not qualify yet, you can still sign the log, you just cannot list this as "found" until you qualify. 
Please leave a favorite point if you enjoyed this challenge trail. 

 

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For a list of all Aurora Challenge Trail caches, click here!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Fznyy pbagnvare arne onfr bs gerr

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)