Placement Considerations

Having found a few geocaches, you are beginning to wonder if you are ready to place one of your own. Before you rush outside and dig a hole to bury a container in your local park, lets have a look a the official cache placement considerations.


The Fundamental Placement Guidelines have been taken from the ones and ‘Victorian’-ised

  1. All local laws and documented land management policies apply.This refers to both the placement of the geocache and the journey required to reach it. Geocachers must not be required to cross any land with “No Trespassing” signs, or or other signs that prohibit access.
  2. You need to assure the reviewer that you have the landowner’s and/or land manager’s permission before you hide a geocache, whether placed on private or public property.By submitting a cache listing, you assure the Reviewer that you have adequate permission to hide your cache in the selected location. If you have permission to place a cache on private property, indicate this on the cache listing for the benefit of the reviewer and those seeking the cache.

    In the case of public property, permission can often be obtained from the agency or association that manages the land. Worldwide, there are many such agencies and organisations that regulate geocaching on their managed land. As the cache owner you are responsible for determining who to contact to obtain permission. As community volunteer reviewers become aware of geocache placement policies for a certain location, they may add areas to the Regional Geocaching Policies Wiki. Make sure you have a read of this list and don’t try to place geocaches that convene these rules.

    Even if you are certain that geocaching is permitted on particular public property, ensure that you have followed any and all requirements established by the land owner or land management agency before placing the cache. There may be locations in which cache hides are inappropriate, even though not prohibited by local laws.

    If Groundspeak is contacted and informed that your cache has been placed inappropriately, your cache may be temporarily disabled or permanently archived.

  3. Geocaches are never buried, neither partially nor completely.If geocacher has to dig or create a hole in the ground when placing or finding a geocache, it is not allowed.
  4. Geocache placements do not damage, deface or destroy public or private property.Geocaches are placed so that the surrounding environment, whether natural or human-made, is safe from intentional or unintentional harm. Property must not be damaged or altered to provide a hiding place, clue, or means of logging a find.
  5. Wildlife and the natural environment are not harmed in the pursuit of geocaching.Geocaches are placed so that plant and animal life are safe from both intentional and unintentional harm. In some regions geocaching activity may need to cease for portions of the year due to sensitivity of some species. If you have found a really pretty area and want to show it to your fellow geocachers, the last thing you will want is for that pretty area to be wrecked while people hunt for a tricky hide.
  6. Geocaches are not placed in restricted, prohibited or otherwise inappropriate locations.Additional regulations and laws that apply only to your country and region may further restrict cache placement. A cache may be disabled or archived if one or more of the following is true. Please note that the list is not exhaustive; there are many reasons why a cache may be disabled or archived.
    1. If your cache is reported by the land owner or land manager as being an unwanted intrusion, Groundspeak will respect the wishes of the land owner or manager.
    2. The cache placement is in an area that is highly sensitive to additional foot and/or vehicular traffic including, but not limited to, archaeological sites, historical sites and cemeteries. Note that some cemeteries permit cache placement.
    3. The cache is on property belonging to a railroad. (I don’t think this applies here, but seriously people, they are trains, they will kill you, be sensible.)
    4. The cache is problematic due to its proximity to a public structure, including and not limited to, highway bridges, major roadways, dams, government buildings, schools, military installations, hospitals, airports and other such locations.
  7. Physical elements of different geocaches should be at least 161 m apart.
    A physical stage is defined as any waypoint that contains a physical element placed by the cache owner, such as a container or a tag with the next set of coordinates. Non-physical caches or stages, (including reference points, track/parking coordinates and/or a virtual stage waypoints) are exempt from this guideline. Additionally, within a single multi-cache or mystery/puzzle cache, there is no minimum required distance between physical elements. EarthCaches are exempt from this guideline as they do not have physical waypoints.
  8. Geocaches are allowed in space, on other planets and in have published and will continue to publish cache listings in outer space, such as in the International Space Station or on Mars.

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