And as GPS becomes ever more integral to our connected society, geocaching is evolving, too, using smartphones’ capabilities to lead people on increasingly immersive and expansive adventures. “GPS started as a U.S. military program,” says Brian Weeden, a space policy expert at the Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy. They did, and people began to call the idea the Great American GPS Stash Hunt. Since then geocaching has grown—largely through that website and its affiliated app—as GPS and handheld civilian technology have both evolved. “The biggest change for me is, at the start, everyone owned a dedicated GPS unit,” Stanley says.