Powered by Max Banner Ads 

The argument for the best GPS receiver for Geocaching used to hinge on whether it was a Magellan or a Garmin. Today, as Garmin has aggressively catered to the Geocaching crowd, the question has become, which Garmin GPS receiver is best for Geocaching?

Garmin has clearly spent many development dollars and hours to producing a Geocaching-oriented GPS receiver and with good reason. Geocachers are the fastest growing segment of GPS purchasers. Many buyers are entering the GPS arena as a Geocacher with need for a hand-held unit and then moving up to a car-mounted or boat-mounted unit.

Garmin's most recent entrance to the hand-held GPS receiver unit arena is their Colorado series units. These units feature Garmin's Rock ’n Roller™ wheel to maximize single hand use. The series has various models that cater to user-specific needs. The Colorado 400t provides hikers with 3D elevation perspective and topographic maps already loaded on the unit. The 400i focuses on the needs of the offshore angler with shoreline details, depth contours, and boat ramp locations. The 400c is geared towards coastal needs with charts of the coastal US and the Bahamas. The 300 is the base model with the least number of additional features pre-loaded.

Traditionally, the Garmin GPSMap 60 series was the Geocachers unit of choice. I currently have the older version, the GPSMap 60CS and love it! It has a large color display, an attached booster antenna, a Geocaching mode, altimeter, compass, as well as all the data you could ever possibly need. It does not have any pre-loaded maps, other than a very basic base map. For the price, you could not buy another GPS receiver at the time that included as many features. The current iteration of this classic is the GPSMap 60CSx that adds a micro SD card slot for holding all your maps and a better satellite tracking device that holds the satellites even in dense foliage.

One of the old (way back in the early 2000's) Garmin's that was very popular was the eTrex series, that included the Legend and the Vista. The Vista has been recently updated to the HCx and includes many of the features of the 60CSx, in a more compact unit.

I personally prefer the GPSMap60 series and will probably upgrade mine to the 60CSx very soon. There is some interest in the Geocaching community in the new Colorado series, but I have not seen or experienced the mass exodus to the Colorado that I experienced with the Map60 series when it came out.

Regardless, you cannot go wrong with the Garmin brand. You just have to determine which one suits your needs, best.