Geocaching

2023 Warren County Parks & Trails Geocaching Mineral Adventure

Grab your GPS, your binoculars and hiking boots, and get ready to explore! Find all 25 geocaches and collect the trading cards, April 1st- November 1st 2023.

What is Geocaching?

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunt using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. It is a world-wide hobby!

What is the Geocaching Mineral Adventure?

There are 25 Geocaching Adventure Caches hidden in county, state and city parks around Warren County. Your challenge is to explore parks and find them all using a GPS. Each cache includes an instruction card, a logbook, and a stack of themed trading cards. Sign the logbook to show that you found the cache and take a trading card for your collection. Discover the parks in the evening or your back yard and see if you can identify a mineral.

After finding all 25 caches, take your 25 trading cards to the Annett Nature Center. We will give you the coordinates to find the last cache challenge. Take a picture of yourself with the very last card or all of your trading cards. Feel free to include family, friends, your dog or anyone else that helped you finish the challenge. All participants who successfully finish the challenge by November 1, 2023 will receive a finisher’s token and your photo will be posted on our Facebook page as Geocaching Adventure Finisher. Then, take the winter months off and check back in the spring for the next geocaching theme.

Minerals!

This is the 10th year of the Warren County Geocaching Adventure. We have done birds, insects, mammals, wildflowers, reptiles, trees, fish, constellations, amphibians, and now minerals. This year features the rocking minerals found in Iowa. Learn fun facts as you explore your local parks and trails.

To Have a Habitat!

Warren County is rich in natural diversity, providing essential habitat for a variety of plants and animals. During the adventure, you can explore Iowa’s four major habitats, woodlands, wetlands, prairies and river. Warren County Conservation and our state and city partners preserve and manage significant fragments of these essential natural landscapes, making them great sites for flowers, wildlife, and park visitors. Be extra observant while you look for the geocaches, you’ll be amazed at the natural wonders you can find in our parks!

Get Started Today!

• Download all the coordinates from below onto your GPS (available April 1st)
• Use the GPS device to determine your location in relation to the cache. The GPS device will show you how far away and in what direction the cache is hidden.
• Find the cache, sign the logbook and take your trading card
• Create a free account on geocaching.com and log your finds. The 25 caches can be found by searching for “WC Mineral Adventure” ( You can also download coordinates straight to you GPS from here or use the Geocaching app on your smartphone to find them)

Don’t know where to start?

We welcome you to stop in at the Annett Nature Center to learn more about geocaching. Staff can provide helpful tips and info about geocaching during our business hours. It’s best to give us a call at 515-961-6169 first before stopping out.

Rules of the Game

Keep geocaching fun, safe and ethical by following the common-sense rules:
• Stay on marked trails wherever possible
• Tread lightly on the land and minimize impacts on the environment. Caches were placed above the ground in relatively well-traveled areas. There should be no need to disturb natural features to find a cache.
• Never remove or relocate a cache. Once you find it, open it to claim your prize, but then put it back exactly where you found it.
• You may find small trinkets left by other participants inside the cache. If you find one, it’s yours to keep. You can choose to leave a trinket for the next Adventure geocacher.
• Observe all laws and rules of the park.
• If you have trouble locating a cache, call us at 515-961-6169 for hints and tips.

2023 Geocaching Mineral Adventure Coordinates will be active on April 1, 2023 at 6AM on geocaching.com or enter the coordinates below.

2023 Mineral Adventure

Annett Nature Center

N 41 17.845

W 93 34.456

Bank Swallow Bend 1

N 41 20.255

W093 29.256

Bank Swallow Bend 2

N 41 20.425

W093 28.973

Blue Flag Marsh

N 41 26.860

W 093 45.601

Carlisle Nature Trail

N 41 30.360

W093 30.911

De Nelsky Park

N 41 21.356

W093 33.195

Gobblers Knob

(Address 22000 90th Ave, New Virginia)

N 41 12.377

W093 38.412

Grant Park 1

N 41 25.729

W093 20.266

Grant Park 2

N 41 25.634

W093 20.184

Great Western Trail

N 41 26.534

W 093 45.381

Hickory Hills 1

N 41 10.802

W093 36.673

Hickory Hills 2

N 41 10.913

W093 36.673

Hooper State Game Area

N 41 16.644

W093 34.998

Lake Ahquabi State Park

N 41 17.912

W 093 35.204

Lundy Acres 1

N 41 25.242

W 093 35.409

Lundy Acres 2

N 41 25.113

W 093 35.410

McCord Park

N 41 21.170

W093 34.965

North River Greenbelt: Swamp White Oak

N 41 26.928

W 093 41.857

Otter Creek 1

N 41 14.801

W093 31.853

Otter Creek 2

N 41 14.580

W093 31.978

Summerset State Park

N 41 26.237

W 093 33.188

Summerset Trail

N 41 27.513

W 093 30.952

Woodland Mounds 1

N 41 20.744

W093 25.709

Woodland Mounds 2

N 41 20.765

W093 25.885

Zo-El Annett Woods

N 41 23.659

W 093 41.924

ANC Final

Once you have collected all 25 trading cards, stop by the Annett Nature Center for your final secret coordinates to collect the last card and receive a geocache finisher’s medal. Our hours are Monday-Friday 8AM-4:30PM or call us and we can arrange a pick up other hours as well. We advise you call ahead to ensure a staff member is in the office.  515-961-6169. Thank you for participating in this year’s adventure.

Want to hide your own cache?

To hide a cache at a Warren County Conservation property, please review our geocaching policy. A permit is required to place a geocache in WCCB. Details here.