Wellingtonie GCXGEX – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – July 2, 2012

The two mammoth trees

Question: What’s green, 35 meters (114 feet) tall and lives just outside of Stuttgart, Germany? Answer: Two gigantic mammoth trees near the Geocache of the Week!

Situated in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, Hirsau is the home to Wellingtonie (GCXGEX), a difficulty 2 1/2, terrain 1 traditional cache.

Perfectly suited for strollers and bicycles, the family-friendly path through the Redwood trees to the geocache is a short walk from the nearby parking area.

A nice walk through the woods

The hidden treasure is close to two “miracle”  trees, which were planted in 1865 by botanist William Lobb, who discovered the sequoias in the California Sierra Nevada during a visit to the US. Lobb and fellow colleagues were amazed by these incredibly tall and very old trees and decided to import and plant numerous seeds for experimental purposes. Two of those seeds were planted in Hirsau.

The cache was placed by dgumg in August of 2009. Since then, nearly 1100 geocachers have logged this cache and awarded it 380 Favorite Points.

As one geocache logger put it, “Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Was für ein Cache! Ich neige mein Haupt.” Simply translated, “Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. What a cache! I bow my head.”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com

If you would like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, send an email with your name, comments, the name of the geocache, and the GC code to pr@groundspeak.com.

View from below the tree