Treasure hunt right in your own backyard

South West Arizona Geocachers celebrate its 20th anniversary in Yuma

YUMA, Ariz, (KYMA, KECY) - A huge scavenger hunt throughout the Desert Southwest and some people have no clue of the treasures they can find.

The South West Arizona Geocachers (S*W*A*G) host an event every year and in 2024, they will be celebrating two decades Sunday Feb. 4 at West Wetlands Park from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

There will be a flag ceremony with the American Legion presenting. The mayor's office will also present a proclamation for geocaching's longest running event and for their 20th year. 

Kathy Cooper, S*W*A*G's educational director explains how geocaching works.

"Geo caching is a treasure hunt. It all around our area. There are thousands of hidden treasures that are little Tupperware boxes or pill bottles or rubber duckies," describes Cooper. "They're hidden so you have to have a GPS or a phone with an app to find them and we use coordinates. We use satellites that show us where they are and we follow the clues and find them."

You never know what you're looking for. The caches can range from tiny to large in size.

Geocachers can even use different kind of tools to reach deep into places if you can't grab it with your hands or you could even use tweezers to grasp little caches.

Once you find it, you log it. Some have paper where you can sign your name and then you place it back where you found. You also check it off on the geocaching app, which then would give you a smiley face for completing the challenge.

S*W*A*G's treasurer Edward Benedict says there are about 10,000 geocaches spread out through Yuma County and in the last month, his team instituted approximately 720 alone.

"So here at the park, we'll actually take the park over and we'll have a poker run. We have the travel bug hotel where they can come and exchange travel bugs. We have several different games out here. We have a large whiteboard set up where people can sign in and they can see where they come from, from all over the world," explains Benedict. "This is actually a destination spot for people from Europe as a vacation site. So we have them come from all over the world to come here just to visit us."

Now, what's a travel bug? Montana geocacher Sandy Fritz says it's a traveling cache that you help get to its final destination.

"We have travel bugs that we leave and they have trackables where you go in on the geocaching app and click on trackable and they all have numbers and you put that number in and then you'll see where they been, who owns them, where they really want to go," explains Fritz. "And this is one of our fun things that we like to do, and some of them want to go to South Carolina."

Some geocachers consider themselves a travel bug by getting a tattoo.

"I am an actual living travel bug. It says PMGMOA," says Benedict. "I'm not the only one. When you come to the event, they'll be almost everybody has a tattoo of some sort. Either they got a shirt that's got the number on it, or a tattoo or anything like that."

To get involved in the fun, join the geocaching mega event and help find treasure Feb. 4 at West Wetlands Park, all while meeting people from across the world.