Matt’s parents turned us on to letterboxing a few summers ago, so when they came up for a visit this past weekend we decided to head out on an adventure to find a new box. If you aren’t familiar with letterboxing (we weren’t until they told us about it) it’s a cross between a treasure hunt and an arts and crafts project. It is sometimes confused with geocaching, but instead of GPS coordinates, you have to follow a series of clues to find the hidden box (or multiples boxes in some cases), and instead of swapping small trinkets with the ones hidden inside the box, you take get to make an imprint of the hand-carved stamp into your log book, and leave an imprint on your own personal stamp inside the logbook hidden in the box.

Of course sometimes people use commercial stamps from their local art stores, but if you don’t feel artistic, you can always get a hand carved stamp to use on etsy. Letterboxing is a great way to explore new places, and even make new discoveries in your own home town. Matt and I have found  boxes in parks, museums, cemeteries and even shops and restaurants. You can get started yourself at Atlasquest.com.

The box we found this eekend was  a series of 6 boxes with 6 really well carved stamps about the past history of the park we explored. Along the way we spotted a lot of mushrooms, berries and even a senior portrait being taken. Matt and I used to live just down the road and never even knew this park existed, we will definitly be coming back.