🌎 U.S.A. States Field Puzzle 🧩

This Geocache will test how much you know your American geography.

🔐 Your Challenge 🔐

You will find the Geocache container at the posted coordinates, but it’s locked. The combo to the outer lock is 1000. Once inside, you’ll find an interesting container that contains the log, which is also locked. You can remove the inside container and use the benches nearby while you work on the next part.

Inside the main container you opened, there are 47 flash cards for the U.S. states plus Washington, DC. Your goal is to determine the THREE states that are missing. Their postal abbreviations in alphabetical order (with no spaces) is your 6-letter combo for the inner lock. For example, if your missing states are Colorado, Kansas, and Texas, your combo should be COKSTX.

🧩 Need Help? 🧩

There are 117,600 possible combinations, so don't feel bad if you're stumped!
Here are some clues to narrow it down:

• 📜 One state was part of the original 13 colonies.
• 🌲One state is a top 5 states for most national parks.
• 🛫One state has a top 5 busiest U.S. airport by passenger traffic.

Good luck! Once you've found your answer, you can verify your combination with this Certitudes checker if you'd like:

You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.

‼️ Important Notes ‼️

• Don’t take the cards! The outer container has room for trading swag, but the cards are part of the game. Please leave them for the next cacher.
• No spoilers in your log, please! Do not post the puzzle solution or your log may be deleted!
• After you’ve logged your find, please relock and scramble both locks so everything stays secure.
• If you enjoyed this cache, the puzzle, or just loved the trail, leave a favorite point! Favorite points help other cachers (especially ones from out of town) know which Geocaches others enjoyed the most so they can pick the best ones to find.