Fans of tracking with GPS a tourism market for state

There's no shortage of wide-open spaces in rural Nevada, and state tourism officials are marketing the great emptiness to hobbyists who like nothing better than finding their way around through the use of their Global Positioning System devices.

A few days ago, for instance, the state commission on tourism provided help to the organizers of the Second Annual Great Basin & Eastern Sierra Geocachers'Navigational Rally in Fallon.

That event drew about 60 participants who traveled by four-wheel-drive vehicle around a course in the desert.

They used their GPS devices to search for 50 caches hidden at precisely defined coordinates.

Here's how important state tourism officials view the geocache market: The tourism commission's Web site provides a link to geocache information from a high-profile spot on its home page.

And tourism officials have gone to the trouble of creating their own cache at 39009.973 N, 119045.989 W.

Anyone who shows up at those coordinates receives a little something.

(While we don't want to give away the secret, here are some hints for the audience that doesn't travel with GPS device in hand: The state says the cache is in Carson City, it's under the control of a person from 8 to 5 on weekdays, it's at a location with stairs in front and a handicap entrance on the side.

Figured it out?)

Bruce Bommarito, executive director of the tourism commission, says geocache fans are a good fit for the state's effort to brand itself as an adventure designation.

"We think of geocaching as a tourism attraction because it draws so many visitors to explore Nevada's high-desert landscape," Bommarito says.

And it's all the more important because state tourism officials are working hard to build visitor traffic in rural outlying areas of Nevada the sorts of areas where geocache fans love to find themselves.

In fact, the Web site www.geocaching.com lists well over 1,500 locations in Nevada where caches can be found by use of GPS devices.

Those locations range from historic mine sites to convenience stores.

Along with its use ofWeb sites, the state markets to geocache fans through direct mailings to club members, ads in Nevada Magazine and involvement with events such as the navigational rally at Fallon.