Geocaching Merit Badge
The nine requirements with requirement 8 drawn as the four-way fork it is, so the thirty-day and three-month clocks on three of its four routes are visible before anybody commits to one.
10 steps (12 parts inside them). 4 parts depend on questions you have not answered yet. · Version 1, published 13 August 2026 · About Geocaching Merit Badge
No questions answered
This is the whole plan: everything that could apply to anybody. Answering the question at the address above takes out the parts that are not for you.
Which of this applies to you
You have not answered anything yet, so this is the whole plan: everything that could apply to anybody. Answering one question will take out the parts that are not for you.
The steps
Stage 1 of 10
1 step
-
1. Hazards, first aid, and planning a trip that uses GPS Requirement
Three parts. The third is a planning discussion rather than a safety one, and it is where the buddy system comes in.
Stage 2 of 10
1 step
-
2. Etiquette, and why a cache is never buried Requirement
Three discussion parts about the practice of geocaching rather than the technology.
Stage 3 of 10
1 step
-
3. Seven terms explained, then five more of your own choosing Often forgotten Requirement
Waypoint, log, cache, accuracy, difficulty and terrain ratings, attributes, trackable. Then you pick five more, which means reading beyond the list you were given.
Stage 4 of 10
1 step
-
4. How GPS works, then teach the unit using EDGE Often forgotten Requirement
Two things: an explanation of the system, and a demonstration to your counselor using Scouting's EDGE method, marking and editing a waypoint, changing field functions, and changing the coordinate system.
Stage 5 of 10
1 step
-
5. Map and compass, and how they compare with a GPS Requirement
Two parts. The badge is about satellites and it still wants you competent with a needle.
Stage 6 of 10
1 step
-
6. The four steps to your first cache, then mark and edit a waypoint Requirement
A description followed by a hands-on task, which is also practice for requirement 7.
Stage 7 of 10
1 step
-
7. Find a real cache, with permission, and a free account Often forgotten Requirement
Needs your parent or guardian's permission and help to set up a free account on geocaching.com. Look up three caches near you, share what is posted about them, then pick one and go and find it.
This requirement needs a parent or guardian: their permission, and their help setting up a free account on a commercial website. Have that conversation at the start of the badge rather than on the evening you hoped to finish it, and note that requirements 8(b) and 8(c) need the same permission again.
Stage 8 of 10
1 step
-
8. Choose one of four routes, and three of them carry a clock Often forgotten Decision
The badge says do ONE. The quick route depends on your council running a Cache to Eagle series; the two obvious substitutes each need thirty days. Settle this before you plan the rest of the badge.
Settle this choice before you plan anything else on the badge. Route (a) is much the shortest and it is the one you may not be allowed to take. It needs your council to run a Cache to Eagle series. Routes (b) and (c) each need thirty days of monitoring, and (c) adds a three-month maintenance commitment on top. Find out about your council's series first; if there is not one, requirement 8 starts today.
4 parts
-
8(a). Cache to Eagle: visit three locations in your council's series Optional May not apply Only available if your council runs a Cache to Eagle series. That is a fact about where you live rather than anything you can arrange, so check it before you plan around this route.
-
8(b). Travel Bug: create one, release it, follow it for 30 days Optional May not apply Often forgotten
-
8(c). Hide a public geocache, and take on three months of maintenance Optional May not apply Often forgotten The heaviest route on the badge, and the commitment outlasts the badge. Before setting the cache up you share a three-month maintenance plan for which you are personally responsible; after setting it up you follow the logs for thirty days; and you must archive the cache when you stop maintaining it. Read requirement 2(b) again before choosing this.
-
8(d). Cache In Trash Out: explain it, describe doing it, then leave something behind Optional May not apply
-
Stage 9 of 10
1 step
-
9. Run a geohunt for another youth group Often forgotten Requirement
A theme, a course of at least four waypoints, teaching the players to use a GPS unit, and playing the game, then telling your counselor about it and handing over the materials you made. This needs somebody else's diary, so start asking early.
This needs a group of other people to agree to a date. A troop, a neighbouring pack, a school or a place of worship, with a theme, at least four waypoints, teaching them the GPS unit, and actually running the game. It is numbered last and it has the longest booking lead on the badge, so start asking early.
Stage 10 of 10
1 step
-
Counselor signs it off Milestone
The completion date is the date you met the requirements, not the date of the signature.
Usually comes after 9. Run a geohunt for another youth group.
Merit badge requirements are republished annually. A Scout beginning work uses the requirements as they stand then; a Scout already working may finish under the ones they started with. Guide to Advancement 7.0.4.3 governs which applies. This page records the date its copy was read. Check it against the official page before relying on it.
This plan is a planning aid: the current Boy Scouts of America publication is always the authority, and the sources used here are listed in full. Each step names its own.