Has anyone here tried Letterboxing or Geocaching, and what experiences have you had with it?

We just had our first experience with letterboxing while on our trip to CA!  We found the letterbox at Tidepool Lighthouse #2 in Laguna Beach, CA.  You can find it on atlasquest.com.  It was quite an adventure considering it was hidden on a rocky seacoast and the tide was coming IN!  Nobody was hurt except for my nerves being really rattled!!!  It would probably be best to check and make sure it is low tide before going out on this quest!  However, I am hooked on letterboxing now!  I found a few close to home posted on atlasquest and Letterboxing North America.  Here are the links:

Atlas Quest: International Letterboxing

Letterboxing North America

I am going to set up our own letterbox as soon as I figure out how! 

Amity

I had never heard of letterboxing, but WOW it's waaaay cool!!!  I can't wait until my son wakes up, so that I can show him. 

Thanks so much for the head's up....I look forward to seeing what other say about it.

We have done some letterboxing in the past.  And we just started Geocaching this summer as well.

We've done some geocaching and have really enjoyed it.  It works great on long road trips because it gives the kids something to and a 15-25 minute get the wiggles out break!

I read about some families that did letterboxing on one of my h/s lists, and it sounded really fun!  I saved the website and then sort of forgot about it for a while.  My cousin had found a few with her kids, so when we went to visit, she showed me how to find the clues from the website and then we went on our search!  

We found one yesterday at a local park!  People usually choose interesting and/or historical sites to place the box.  Finding the box is like going on a treasure hunt which is fun in itself.  Visiting the locations is really neat though, because they are hidden little gems that you probably wouldn't have known about otherwise.  The hunt we went on yesterday was a series of 3 in a local park where there is a theatre, an art musem, and a large park with trees and winding trails.  My daughter has taken classes there many times and my younger one and I have logged many footsteps exploring while waiting for her sister!  However, I never even noticed the veteran's memorial which is part of the park, just over a footbridge!  That was one of the locations in the series! 

Three other sites that I have printed out for future hunts are on state preserves, and one is an ecological center.  I'm having fun with this!  I just wish there were more boxes close by!

Amity

I read your post and we found the website....and our first letterbox!!! We are blessed to have about 10 in our area...some are too difficult but we found one yesterday and got to another one but never actually found the letterbox. I'm going to take my husband out there this afternoon and see if he can find it!

That sounds neat.  I searched and there are two withing walking distance of my house.  COOL!!!  There are a few more in the area.

I have one question.....What kind of stamp are we to use?  Do we make our own stamper?  I know these are stupid questions.  Bare with me....lol.

Carole, Stacey, and Jennifer, I'm glad my post inspired you to check out letterboxing!  Jennifer, as far as stamps go, you can be as creative as you like!  I just went to Michael's and picked out some stamps I liked for me and my girls.  If you are going to plant a letterbox, you might want to get more creative.  It's fun to make the stamp match the location, or maybe a stamp that is personal to you.  I was thinking of using an initial, or maybe an animal that I'm fond of.  The stamp I chose for the box I'm going to plant is a quote "The best things in life aren't things at all."  It seemed to fit how I was feeling about letterboxing!!  If I could have found one that better represented the location (it's a historic one-room schoolhouse) I would have chosen it.  There are instructions to carve your own stamp on one of the sites, I think Letterboxing North America, but that is way over my head right now.  I'm no artist! <g> 

Amity

I had seen an article about this in FamilyFun and thought it sounded complicated.  I decided to checked out the sites you posted and we went on our first hunt today!!  We had so much fun and it wasn't even 5 minutes from our home.  We even assigned each child with a duty... Trail Blazer, Head of Supplies and Stamp Logger.  They loved this and said they will trade duties each time.  You can get a kit to make your own stamp at Hobby Lobby.

Thanks for posting about this!

~Carla

The kiddos and I found our first set of letterboxes today.  I think this topic has started us on a new learning adventure.

Thanks!!

We plan on planting one on saturday.  I have the clue ready and the stamp already made.

Thank you for posting this. It looks so neat! It goes great with my theme this term: directions, map reading, and compass use. We haven't gotten started yet, but I looked and there are several in my town. We are definitely going to start this soon!

We even found some in a community we were visiting last weekend!!! Just typed in the zipcode and went out with a map! I am the most excited about this...my family just 'goes along for the ride'. UGH!

I'm glad you guys have been having fun with it!  We have found a couple of local boxes, but I wish there were more close by!  I joined a couple of yahoo groups too.  One is Letterboxing Southeast- a regional group and the other is lbannounce (?)--sorry, I don't know how to put the link in here.  The second one is just to announce new boxes.  I am hoping to find some other boxes and I hope people keep planting them! 

We haven't tried any that require using a compass yet, but it sounds fun!  Did you notice that you can order patches from AtlasQuest and LB North America?  We are just starting out in girl scouts, so I thought that would be fun to get a badge for letterboxing!

Amity

We found our first one yesterday in Red Rock Canyon (outside Las Vegas)!  WooHoo!!

My DS was beyond excited and has plans on finding the others in the area.  :)

I checked out the websites after reading your post a couple of days ago. There are four planted in our county, and I figure we'll start with those. We go to the beach often, and there are lots near our beach house. I'm getting very excited already! I told the kids about it last night, and they are very excited, too. Thanks for sharing this. I would have never known, and this will add so much to our vacations! I just love inexpensive family activities--especially on vacation!! Rita.