This article applies to the immediate Austin area, but we'd appreciate others filling us in
on any other rules for other places around Central Texas. Please
contact us
if you can provide additional information.
The Austin Parks and Recreation Department is OK with geocaches in their parks, but NOT in
designated "preserves" ... the confusing thing about this is that some things called "parks"
are actually "preserves" ... Mayfield Park is a preserve, and the area of Zilker west of MoPac,
where the Nature Center is, is a preserve. If you are looking to hide a cache in an Austin Park,
and there are no other caches there, please check the
Austin Parks and Recreation Nature Preserves
web page to make sure it's not a preserve. There are 191 parks and 24 greenbelts, and only 11
preserves, so we have plenty of places to hide stuff!
Next, Travis County issued a set of rules after negotiating with us cachers a while back, and asked
that we always have cache locations approved when hiding in a County Park. The only place we can't
hide stuff is Hamilton Pool which is a Preserve. There are certain ecologically sensitive areas in
some of the other Parks that they'd like us to avoid, hence the request for site approval. Download
Geocache Rules in Travis County Parks
for a list of rules and contact information.
State Parks are, for the most part, agreeable and happy to have geocaches, but each one at this
time sets their own policy. Some have had bad experiences with geocachers and are reluctant to
allow caching, but if you are straightforward and let them know what you are doing and give them
location info (approximate or exact, as they prefer), you should have no trouble.
We are lucky to live in an area RICH in green space; let's work together to perpetuate a positive
image for our sport by respecting these rules, as well as the rights of private property owners.
Now, go hide that cache!
Candy Lind, who goes by the name of
Moosiegirl
is very active in the Central Texas geocaching community. As of March 3, 2005, She has
hidden close to 40 and found over 2100 caches.
