Visit Centre County GeoTour
You have found your next adventure! Thank you for joining us for the “Visit Centre County” GeoTour as we show you some of our most favorite caching locations to include state parks, beautiful vistas, and historical points of interest! Our team of GeoTour planners have worked very hard to put together various cache types to keep the GeoTour interesting and challenging; however, no geocache should be beyond a 3/3.5 for terrain and/or difficulty! We are pleased to show you around our County and hope that you will enjoy the GeoTour and complete your passport to collect your custom GeoTour Geocoin (there is a minimum number of caches required to receive coin)!
If you will be caching with some young ‘uns, we have a Jr. Geocaching Passport available for children, 12 yrs. and under, with a special prize for their hard work too! Caches will be marked as “family-friendly” and should correlate to the Jr. Geocaching Passport.
Download your “Visit Centre County” GeoTour passport and/or your Jr. Geocaching Passport or pick-up paper copies at the following coordinates: N 40° 48.879; W 077° 51.274 (Happy Valley Adventure Bureau). You’ll return your passport to the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau when complete and collect your prize if you meet the minimum requirements!
The “Visit Centre County” GeoTour is brought to you by Centre Region Parks and Recreation, the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, and Groundspeak, Inc. We are pleased that you’ll be joining us in Happy Valley soon! Bring on the Adventures!
Perched Near Childhood's Gate
Welcome to the H.O. Smith Botanic Gardens at The Arboretum at Penn State! We ask that while caching here, you please observe all posted rules and regulations. Please only cache from dawn until dusk.
The cache you’re seeking was placed with permission from The Arboretum at Penn State. It is located in the Childhood’s Gate Children’s Garden and, though it is family-friendly, it may be perched out of the reach of young cachers. FTF will find a travel bug that would love to travel to as many public gardens as possible in 3 years.
Please feel free to stay a while and explore! To learn more about the Arboretum and the children’s garden, visit our website: arboretum.psu.edu.
Parking
- Visitor parking is available in the Lewis Katz Building lot, just across Bigler Road from the old Arboretum lot.
- To park in the Katz lot, Arboretum visitors who do not hold a Penn State parking permit that is valid in an Orange lot must pay a fee of $1/hour. Payment may be made via the pay station in the Katz Building lot via credit card, or via the ParkMobile app, which is also available for use in many other parking lots on campus. Visitors may download the ParkMobile app or visit ParkMobile’s Penn State site to learn more. Parking fees apply 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- Visitors will be able to purchase parking for a maximum of two hours during weekdays when Penn State classes are in session during the fall and spring semesters. On weekdays during the summer and winter breaks, visitors will be able to extend their length of stay. On Saturdays and Sundays, all-day parking will be available at the rate of $8.
- Visitors with Penn State parking permits may use the Katz lot at any time if their permit is valid in Orange campus lots. For those whose permit is not valid in Orange lots, the Katz lot may be used after 4:00 p.m. on weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday.
- Two ADA-accessible parking spots remain available near the Overlook Pavilion.
- Another option on any day is to pay $1/hour to park in the East Parking Deck on Bigler Road.
- All campus visitor parking information, including how to obtain daily, evening, overnight, weekend, and event parking permits, is available at https://transportation.psu.edu/visitors.
Important: Over-sized vehicles such as school buses, motor coaches, and recreational vehicles may not be parked in the Lewis Katz parking lot. Drivers of large vehicles may let passengers disembark in the Katz lot but they must move their vehicles to the Porter North parking lot on Porter Road near Beaver Stadium. Click here to see a map showing the route from the Arboretum’s parking lot to the Porter North parking lot. On holidays and weekends, over-size vehicles may be parked in the Lewis Katz Building lot if there is sufficient space available.
Note: Drivers will have to use the pay station ($1 per hour) in the Porter North lot on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.
If you are hosting an event or bringing a group to the Arboretum, you can also consider hiring a shuttle to transport your guests or contact the University’s Parking Office to make arrangements for parking.