The state program
WV State Parks geocaching trail
An organized challenge across the park system with prizes for completion, which turns a summer of park visits into a project.
Full guide to Watoga State Park →Geocaching
West Virginia State Parks runs an organized geocaching program alongside the global Geocaching.com network, which is a low-effort way to see corners of parks most visitors miss.
West Virginia State Parks runs an organized geocaching challenge, which is the most effective way anyone has found to get visitors into the corners of parks they'd otherwise skip.
A global network plus a state program, both free, both surprisingly good at structuring a day.
Our recommendations
Where we'd send you
Along a trail
North Bend Rail Trail
The North Bend Rail Trail. Caches strung along seventy-two miles and thirteen tunnels — ride and hunt at the same time.
Full guide to North Bend Rail Trail →For a full day
Watoga State Park
Watoga State Park. Ten thousand acres, plenty of caches and enough trail to make finding them a real walk.
Full guide to Watoga State Park →Practical note
Cell service fails across most of the good caching country. Download offline maps and cache coordinates before leaving pavement, because cell service is unreliable across most of this country.
What to know before you go
- The state park geocaching program includes a trail with prizes for completion
- Avenza and Gaia both handle offline maps where cell service fails
Regions that do it best
Rail-trails, limestone caves, gentle river paddling
Greenbrier Valley
The Greenbrier Valley sits on Greenbrier limestone, producing karst topography: sinkholes, springs, sinking streams and extensive cave systems, several with more than forty miles of surveyed passage.
Reservoirs, trout water, developing rail-trailMountain Lakes
The geographic center of the state and its least-visited region.
Appalachian Trail, warm rivers, limestone streamsEastern Panhandle
The Appalachian Trail crosses the Potomac at Harpers Ferry and runs roughly 24 miles through this region.
Every place we cover for geocaching
State Park · Greenbrier Valley
Watoga State Park
West Virginia's largest state park at over 10,100 acres, built largely by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
10,100 ac largest state park1930s ccc-built
Trail · Mountaineer Country
Mon River Rail-Trail System
About 48 miles of connected crushed-limestone rail-trail through Morgantown: the Caperton Trail along the riverfront downtown, the Mon River Trail running north to the Pennsylvania line and south toward Prickett's Fort, and the Deckers Creek Trail climbing 19 miles east to Reedsville.
48+ mi connected19 mi deckers creek trail
State Park · Mid-Ohio Valley
North Bend State Park
A 1,405-acre park on a horseshoe bend of the North Fork of the Hughes River, with a lodge, cabins, campgrounds, a 305-acre lake nearby and direct access to the North Bend Rail Trail.
1,405 ac park305 ac north bend lake
AdvertiseThis space is available
Guides and rentals for geocaching
Reserved for a West Virginia operator serving this activity. The listings above and below it are unpaid.
List your business hereQuestions people ask
Does West Virginia have a state park geocaching program?
Yes. West Virginia State Parks operates an organized geocaching challenge across its parks and forests, in addition to the caches listed on Geocaching.com.
Organizations, agencies and resources · 4
Groups that handle access, maintenance, licensing and conditions data for this activity. Starred entries publish updates worth following.
West Virginia State Parks
State parks, forests, rail trails, hiking, biking, paddling, camping, fishing, boating and lodging across 35+ properties.
Visit Avenza Maps
Hiking
Georeferenced PDF maps including official Monongahela National Forest and USGS quadrangles for offline use.
Visit Geocaching.com
Geocaching
The global geocache database, with thousands of active West Virginia caches.
Visit West Virginia State Parks Geocaching
Geocaching
Organized state park geocaching program and challenge trail with completion prizes.
Visit
Related activities
Every organization we link to: local tourism offices, the state and federal agencies that manage the land, the nonprofits and clubs that keep access open, and the universities doing the research.
West Virginia has roughly 1.5 million acres of public land and a handful of places that carry almost all of the attention. The consequence is that a great deal of very good ground sits nearly empty, usually for one of three reasons: nobody has heard of it, the road in is gated or rough, or it is undeveloped and has nothing to advertise. Those are the places below — of them across regions.