The purpose of this study is to examine a secondary tourism attraction
complex, geocaching, for its tourism experience by analyzing a real-life situation of
geocaching within Yellowstone National Park (YNP) in the United States. A thematic
analysis was used to analyze the comments accessed through Geocaching.com. The
analysis involved 72 geocache sites within YNP and all the geocachers’ written
comments within the year of 2016. Three identified themes included Locality,
Geocache-Based Experience, and Geocachers’ Self-Expression. Implications and
management recommendations are identified for National Parks and other locations
participating in geocaching. The limitation of this study is that we only examined 72
sites within the YNP, considering approximately three million active caches
throughout 180 different countries. There is limited research on geocaching, although
geocaching is becoming increasingly popular activity throughout the world. This study
fills part of this gap while authors posit that there needs to be more thorough and
comprehensive understanding of geocaching tourism.