Geocaching in Gatlinburg, Tennessee







Before we left for Tennessee, we decided to grab a few travel bugs to take along, so we could help them get closer to their travel goals. Geocaching on vacation is always a fun time and a nice way to see a few new places. Plus, when you have two napping children, it is a nice activity to break up the wait and give the oldest something to do.

 

Our first stop was right down the street from our cabin.  It was a covered bridge in the Arts and Crafts part of Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  This one took a little while for us to find, but didn't stay hidden for long.  Ethan made the grab without any help!  We signed the log and headed to another, larger cache to place the travel coin we picked up in Iowa before we left.

Derrick, Ethan and Everett searching the GeoZone for the cache.

 

"Mom, I think I found something!"

Found it!!

Happy Geocachers after a quick and easy find!

Our next stop was a very busy geocache right in the heart of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  We picked this place because we had a travel coin to drop and it didn't have any specific goals, except for the fact that it needed to travel.  This was was behind a very busy diner and we were spotted by many workers (who knew what we were up to, so they left us alone) and with a screaming baby, a hungry toddler and a container full of SWAG (trinkets and items for the taking), we were a sight to see.



Notice the cache is chained to the building. 
Don't want it to walk away in such a high traffic area!

Here is a photo of Ev in a Go Cart with a travel bug
that needed to be photographed with as many cars
as possible.

In Iowa, we had picked up a few travel bugs.  This one needed to be placed in the woods, so we went to the best place I knew of that would satisfy that goal (we visited it last time we were in Tennessee), right now the street from our cabin, across the street from Smokey Mountain National Park.



Found it!!

Here is Ethan with our Bear travel bug before he placed him into the container.
Notice the "dog tag" on the Bear, this is the ID tag that holds the number that
we use to keep track of his travels.  Happy hibernation little guy!

After placing the Bear in the woods, we had a dog travel buddy that needed to be placed in a park.  Since the national park didn't allow geocaches, we found a park right in the heart of downtown Gatlinburg.  It was a cute, private park that we would have missed if we wouldn't have known about the geocache.


The boys, quickly crossing the bridge to find the geocache.



Do you see the geocache?

Found it!!

 

Bye-bye little travel buddy puppy!

Hopefully he will enjoy his new home!

A few days later we searched for a few other caches on our way up to Pigeon Forge to shop for fireworks.  This one was along the Arts and Crafts road in a hillside cemetery.

 

Not here!

Is it over here?

We found that one and continued up the road to the next location.  It was near a pond.  This one was soaking wet.  Can you see it?

It's down here!  Do you see it?

Daddy helped get this one!
 

The next stop was at a local Firehouse Subs restaurant.  We had never heard of Firehouse Subs before so we thought we would check it out.  We pulled up in front of the building and decided to take a photo.  One of the workers inside saw us and brought Ethan a hat to wear for the photo.

 



 

The geocache said it was near the sign.  Is it here?

Found it!

This was the last of our Tennessee GeoAdventures and we headed home with a new travel bug (that we picked up from the first stop with the large ammo can) and a lot of cool trinkets (SWAG) as souvenirs for the boys.  It was some good, free family fun!