How do I do Adventures with poor phone service?

Unfortunately poor cell service is a problem in some areas of the coast. You can still do an Adventure by downloading it in a spot where you have good service and then NOT CLOSING IT. Go through each of the locations and make sure your phone sees that you get inside the radius where you need to answer the question, but don't answer it right away. Proceed to the next location and do the same thing. You can wait until you are in a spot where you have cell service to actually answer the questions. Geocacher gsmx2 has written an excellent guide for doing this and a training video as well.

How long will it take to do the whole Washington Coast Adventure Series?

Great question! The answer, as always is that it depends on what your caching style is and what else it is that you want to do. We recommend taking at least three days to do the entire series, more if you want to add additional geocaches or other touring along the way (highly recommended)!

Plan your trip by getting passes to places you want to go ahead of time

Washington state has an admittedly confusing set of access passes for various parks and recreation facilities in the state. Blame this on the huge variety of places that own the land, each of which have their own rules.

Let's start with the basics: Adventures aren't placed in places that charge for access, but may be placed in places that charge for parking.

If you are traveling by car, you will want to purchase a Washington State Discover Pass that allows parking access on State owned land. It costs $35 per year and allows you to park at any Washington State Park as well as hundreds of places that the Washington State DNR maintains. There are a lot of these locations included in various Adventures in the WCAS and many geocaches as well. It's a very worthwhile investment if you'll be here for more than a day. You can also buy a 1-day pass for $11.50 if that's all you need.

Lands that are managed by the Federal government use a different pass, and you will likely want one of these as well to do the Washington Coastal Adventure Series. Purchasing in advance makes things easier.

  • Northwest Forest Pass - $30 pass allows access to US Forest Service maintained sites and trails in Oregon and Washington. This will not cover any access into the paid areas of Olympic National Park.

  • America The Beautiful Pass - $80 (less for active military or seniors) allows access to all federally administered areas for a full year. This would include the forest service lands administered by the Northwest Forest Pass, Olympic National Park and the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge (and any other federal lands in the US). Note that you can buy access to Olympic National Park at the gate and the Northwest Forest Pass for less than $80. The America The Beautiful is still the best choice if you are planning additional visits to other places like Mt. Rainier or other US National Parks during this year.

  • National Wildlife Refuge - collected at the entrance to Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. It costs $3 at the entrance (covered by the America The Beautiful Pass).

Can you point me to some useful links for visitors?

The links below provide a way for you to explore some of the area. They include lists of spots to stay, shop, dine and other places to explore while you are in the area. Washington State Parks are located all over the state, but the rest of the list is aligned north to south along the route.

NOTE: There are many places to camp along the Washington coast, but they often fill up quite early, so you need to book many months in advance. Book at least six months in advance for summer weekend reservations.