AMLA Launches Alabama’s First GeoTour

The Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association (AMLA) held a press conference on Wednesday to launch Alabama’s first official GeoTour. Created by AMLA, Dash of the Unexpected GeoTour features thirty-one geocaches hidden throughout North Alabama in an effort to attract the millions of worldwide geocachers to the region.

Designed to attract both experienced and new geocachers, Dash of the Unexpected GeoTour features 31 attractions, historic sites and unique, locally owned places in the northern Alabama region. Locations include Houston Jail, Horton Mill Bridge, Miracle Pottery, Carnegie Library, Princess Theatre, Coon Dog Cemetery, Joe Wheeler State Park, LaGrange Cemetery and Goat Island Brewing.  Of the 31 locations, 13 are existing caches and 18 are new caches.

Dash of the Unexpected GeoTour has its own page on geocaching.com, which lists the participating geocaches. Geocachers use a GPS device or the Geocaching app on their smartphone to navigate to a set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find a hidden geocache container. Each cache will contain a point value that participants will record in a passport (downloadable on www.northalabama.org/geocache). Participants must sign the physical cache log for each geocache find and record the find on www.geocaching.com to be eligible. The first 300 cachers who achieve 60 total points are eligible to receive Dash of the Unexpected GeoTour Geocoin, trackable on Geocaching.com. The first 100 cachers who achieve 75 total points will receive the coin and a special Dash of the Unexpected t-shirt.

“The Dash of the Unexpected GeoTour invites geocachers, whether experienced or new to the activity, to explore some of North Alabama’s unique destinations,” said AMLA President/CEO Tami Reist. “Geocaching is a fun and inexpensive way to learn about what an area has to offer. Each of the locations on the GeoTour has a compelling story to tell and when these adventure seekers visit, I believe they will be pleasantly surprised and fascinated with what they learn.”

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game played throughout the world using GPS-enabled devices. The purpose is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, from a specific set of GPS coordinates. Once found, participants must sign the logbook provided on site and record the find on www.geocaching.com. If participants take something, they must leave something of equal or greater value for other participants. According to www.geocaching.com, the official global GPS cache hunt site, there are over 2.9 million active geocaches in over 180 countries and over three million active geocachers worldwide.

For more information on the Dash of the Unexpected GeoTour, call AMLA at 800.648.5381.