UPDATE: 3/1/2024:
2019 was the 100th Anniversary of Michigan State Parks and we're still celebrating!. Join the Michigan Geocaching Organization (MiGO), the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Geocaching.com for the first official GeoTour in Michigan.
This tour was originally scheduled to run for three years, kicking off on Friday of Memorial Weekend in 2019 and continue through May 31, 2022. The success of this awesome tour has not gone unnoticed. On February 2, 2022, The DNR announced the extension of the GeoTour through September 24, 2024! Join us in making a final push to complete this very popular and very successful GeoTour before the sun sets on it.
Each geocache is in one of Michigan's state parks. The geocaches are arranged by MiGO Region, with twenty-five geocaches per region. The Ticket to Celebrate 100 is available for download from the DNR's Geocaching page. It explains how to qualify for prizes in each of the four regions and for the GeoTour as a whole.
Day use areas of state parks are open from 8AM to 10PM. Geocaching is limited to those hours. Entry into Michigan's State Parks requires a Michigan Recreation Passport. See the Resources section below for more information.
The sun will set on the MSPCGT at midnight Tuesday, September 24, 2024. The MSPCGT will go off the air as a GeoTour and the caches will disappear from the map. There is a lot of construction going on in our State Parks in 2024. Some of the GeoTour caches will have to be pulled earlier. The remaining geocaches in the tour will be archived October 1, 2024. Players will have until December 31, 2024 to claim any prize they have earned. Hiders will be contacted to request removal of the geocaches they hid unless they have made arrangements with park managers and have their own permit in place to keep the geocache in play, with a new GC Code.
Now for some good news: MiGO and the DNR are busy working on a new project that will kick off in the Spring of 2025, code named MSPGT 2.0. Are you interested in helping? Keep your MiGO Membership up to date and stay tuned to the website.
Cache:
This cache was hidden as part of the Michigan State Parks Centennial GeoTour, presented by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Geocaching Organization. Record the codeword printed on the log book and on a label inside the cache container to the appropriate box on the Ticket to Celebrate 100 form. See the instructions on the form to claim prizes.
This is a traditional cache hidden at the posted coordinates. You are looking for a Regular size container. Please return everything as good or better than you found it.
Thank you
Kneel More
for creating, hiding and maintaining this MSPC GeoTour cache.
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Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Pastel Sunset at Wilderness State Park
Wilderness State Park:
Wilderness State Park is 10,512 Acres of Northern Michigan natural beauty. Located at the tip of the mitt, this piece of wilderness has something to offer for every nature enthusiast. A short 11-mile drive from Mackinaw City will put you at the gate of some great hiking, swimming, cross-country skiing, fishing, and even geocaching. Wilderness State Park boasts its very own geocaching trail with 16 geocaches included in the trail, and an additional four caches in the park for beginners.
Photo courtesy National Autobon Society
Piping Plover
The majority of the many miles of shoreline consist of wide sandy beaches with scattered cobble, backed by one of the best developed and most diverse forested dune and swale complexes in Michigan, with some spectacular wetland areas mixed throughout. The scattered cobble beach areas provide some of the best habitat in Michigan for the federally endangered piping plover. In fact, almost the entire shoreline of the proposed natural areas is designated as critical habitat for the piping plover. During the 2002 nesting season, 16 of 52 active nests were at Wilderness.
The terrain is a mixture of dense coniferous forest to mature hardwood forest, with some pockets of open, wet, meadows mixed in. There is an abundance of small ponds mixed in with coniferous wetlands. It is easy to get lost and everyone going into the forest is advised to carry a map and compass.
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Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Cabin in Winter
History:
The state began acquiring the park′s lands in 1896 through purchase and tax reversion proceedings. After the reversion of additional acreage for tax nonpayment in the early years of the twentieth century, the site became the Emmet State Game Refuge in 1922, with the land set aside for the breeding of game birds and other animals. When the game reserve was placed under the administration of the Parks Division in 1927, it officially became Wilderness State Park.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was active in the park for six years during the 1930s. The CCC workers built various structures, eight miles of trails, a public campground, and four-acre Goose Pond. One of their projects was the Wayside Shelter that was built in 1934 and was built entirely out of logs. The Adirondack style structure is complete with a very large stone fireplace.
Most of this area was cut-over prior to 1900, leaving only one small stand and scattered individual trees intact. Yet, the area has re-grown and now stands as it once did, providing its visitors an opportunity to experience a Michigan landscape as it occurred prior to European settlement. It supports fine populations of two Great Lakes endemic plant species - Pitcher′s thistle and Houghton′s goldenrod - and additional threatened plants - Lake Huron tansy, Pumpell′s bromegrass, and butterwort. The proposed wilderness area encompasses the largest piece of contingent, undeveloped land in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and offers outstanding opportunities for primitive recreation and solitude.
Map courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Activities:
Wilderness State Park offers visitors a variety of year-round recreational activities within its over 10,000 acres. Wilderness areas and 26 miles of beautiful Lake Michigan shoreline provide great places to observe nature from the numerous trails throughout the park. The park offers a number of camping opportunities, including 250 modern campsites that are divided into two units (Lakeshore and Pines), as well as 18 sites in the full hook-up campground and nine sites in the tent-only campground. Six rustic cabins and three rustic bunkhouses are additional options for accommodations within the park.
In 2012, Wilderness State Park was also designated as one of Michigan′s Dark Sky Preserves It is one of the few places where you can observe the night sky without the interference of city lights.
Information:
For more information, reservations and a calendar of events, follow this link to
Wilderness State Park. Thank you to the Michigan DNR, National Autobon Society and Wikilinks for information on this page.
Special thanks to
Kosmic Cache Crew
for help with this geocache.
Special thanks to Are You Geocacher Enough? Road Rally for the Northern Lower regional prize.
Resources: