• 2026 Fall Series: Kicked off on 9/13/26 --- caches publishing!

Thank you for visiting the NoVAGO website.

The Northern Virginia Geocaching Organization (NoVAGO) was established to encourage and promote good geocaching practices and create a community of geocachers through our events and activities. We are committed to safe, responsible, and environmentally friendly geocaching. We welcome involvement and cooperation of park management and local government to keep geocaching open to the community and to promote the geocaching hobby to the greater community.

You can find out more About NoVAGO by clicking here.

  • 2026 NoVAGO Silent Auction Donations Wanted!

     NoVAGO Silent Auction Donations Wanted!  Calling all geocachers! It’s time to help us stock the auction cache!  We’re looking for fun items for the upcoming NoVAGO Silent Auction — and they don’t have to be geocaching-related! Have something cool you’d like to donate? We’d love:  Gift cards Geocoins, pathtags & trackables Cool cache containers Geocaching gear Outdoor goodies Gift baskets Restaurant certificates Handmade items Experiences Or anything else someone would love to take home! New items are great, but creative and unique items are even better! Got something for us? Comment below or send me a message.  Your donations help support NoVAGO and make our silent auction a success. So check your closets, raid your…

  • 2026 Annual Fall Series: NoVAGO20

    Theme: 20 Years of Gifts This post will be updated throughout the series. It’s NoVAGO’s 20th Anniversary! To celebrate, this year’s series — “20 Years of Gifts” — will be a showering of presents from the region’s most esteemed hiders, commemorating our organization’s past, present and future.  Team sedor18 is putting together this special geocaching run from September 2026 through January 2027. Reach out if you are interested in placing or hosting an event! How do we celebrate anniversaries? With gifts, of course. Caches will be placed representing the yearly anniversary gift — drawn from the Traditional, Modern, Flower, or Gem…

  • Jasmer Challenge

    Article written by: Gary [USMA77] A blog in geocaching.com titled “The Jasmer Challenge” calls it “[o]ne of the oldest and most popular geocaching challenges … To complete the challenge , you must fill your Jasmer grid by finding caches placed in every month since geocaching began in May 2000.”  This blog is an excellent summary of the Jasmer Challenge and goes into detail about how you can identify needed caches to compete missing months in your Jasmer Grid.  Check the blog out at HQ Blog: 2018-10, The Jasmer Challenge. You can find your Jasmer Grid, named  “Finds by hidden month”, in your Profile…

  • Adoption of caches in National Park Service Geotours

    Help keep these iconic Geotours going! Mark Neuberger (Deepdish23) has requested NoVAGO reach out to area cachers to find volunteers to adopt caches in the Geotours. The following is a letter from him providing some background. The National Park Service in the Mid-Atlantic Region played an important part in the creating of the Geotour.  The first two Geotours that existed were the Star-Spangled Banner Geotour in 2011 and the Captain John Smith Geotour in 2012.  In 2018, the NPS along with the Chesapeake Conservancy helped in establishing the Find Your Chesapeake Geotour.  These Geotours brought geocaching to places that never…

  • NoVAGO – How to Get Started with Geocaching

    NoVAGO is excited to be part of the Handley Regional Library’s How‑To Fest! Join NoVAGO at our table for How to Get Started with Geocaching and a live presentation at 11:45 AM.📍 100 West Piccadilly St, Winchester, VA📅 Saturday, September 26🕙 Festival 10–1 | 🎤 Presentation 11:45–12:15If you’re curious about geocaching—or want to introduce a friend to the hobby—stop by and chat with us. We’d love to help you get started.2026 Handley Regional Library, How-To Fest! promoted on Facebook and Discord … Continue reading →

  • We challenge you to learn more about Challenge Caches!

    mcgmaraudersNoVAGO feature article writerTrevor has over 12,000 geocache finds from all around the globe. He also owns more than 140 hides, mostly in the Northern Virginia area. His favorite virtual find is the Lion Gate in Mycenae, Greece (pictured) “There was very little shade and it was 107 deg F, but the Lion Gate, erected in 1250 BC, was most definitely my favorite.” Do you enjoy Challenges caches as much as we do?! Would you like to locate these easily and determine if you already qualify? One easy-to-use tool is contained in Project-GC (https://project-gc.com/), if you have a paid membership*.…

  • Mystery/Unknown/Puzzle Caches???

    Article written by: Gary [USMA77] Which is it; why so many names; and what are they?  This ‘type’ of geocache (cache) has a much wider range of uses than the other more narrowly defined ‘types’ of caches, such as Traditionals, Multicaches, Virtuals, etc. The “Your Statistics” tab in Geocaching.com identifies this cache ‘type’ as UNKNOWN Caches.  Project-GC stats labels them as MYSTERY Caches.  Geocaching.com defines MYSTERY Caches as follows: “Also called a ‘puzzle cache’, players might need to solve a puzzle or bring a special tool to reveal the next waypoint or final coordinates.  Most often, the final container is…

  • NoVAGO 2026 Fall Picnic and Silent Auction

    📅 Log your will attend!🍂🐾 Join us for the NoVAGO Fall Picnic & Auction—a fun-filled day with friends, community, and our annual auction event! 📍 Bluemont Park N Manchester St & 4th St N, Arlington, VA 22203 📅 October 18, 2026 🕚 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM Published! NoVAGO’s 2026 Fall Picnic and Auction (GCBVB2M) The event page has been submitted and will published soon. Log Your Will Attend: Post your “Will Attend” log and mention what you’re planning to bring!🍁 Photography and Media Notice: By attending this event, you acknowledge that photographs, video recordings, and other media may be captured…