At Mother Neff State Park headquarters, knowing the year the park was established will allow you to unlock a modern treasure chest to see what’s inside — but you’ve got to find the chest first. That’s part of the fun.

The box is one of several geocaches hidden around the park. Geocaching is a scavenger hunt-style game using GPS-enabled devices to search for and find hidden containers, called caches.
Superintendent Melissa Chadwick says Mother Neff has been experiencing an upswing in geocaching, and she appreciates the way it gets people out to the park.

“I’ve seen a lot more people doing it, and I feel like it’s an activity that is going to always have new users as you get new generations of folks getting on their phones and connecting that way,” she says. “Some people come to Mother Neff just to go geocaching.”

Geocaches range in size from “microcaches” to larger objects such as ammo boxes. Many are camouflaged, but they are not buried. The caches usually contain trinkets and a logbook inside. Geocachers use websites such as geocaching.com or a smartphone app to find caches, which have ratings on difficulty, size and terrain. Once a geocacher has the coordinates, he or she can navigate to the cache and use hints to find it.

Volunteer Ron Willis went to Chadwick in 2021 with hopes of creating a new geocache at the park; since then, he has been instrumental in maintaining the park’s caches and spreading the word about them.

“He’s done some programming here at the park to bring in new users, and he pretty much hooks one or two families every time he comes out and gets some started with geocaching,” Chadwick says.

Several of the park’s caches can be found near features built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which allows visitors to experience the park’s rich history. “We wanted our caches to have an educational aspect where people can learn something about the park,” she says.  

First State Park

Mother Neff State Park is considered to be Texas’ first state park. It was created on land donated by the family of former Gov. Pat Neff.