Bok Tower Gardens > Plan Your Visit > Bok Bonus Trek

Bok Bonus Trek

Bok Tower Gardens is proud is be a partner in Polk County’s Trek Ten Trails program with the Bok Bonus Trek. Once you have trekked four of the ten trails, present your validation card (find out where to get one) with any four stamps to receive free admission to Bok Tower Gardens.

You’ll find three Bok Bonus Trek caches located on the ¾ mile Pine Ridge Trail. They include numerous trade treasures and a log book containing a secret number code for a chance to win valuable prizes. The GPS coordinates are:
N 27° 55.061 W 081° 34.504
N 27° 56.227 W 081° 34.504
N 27° 56.272 W 081° 34.383

The Bok Bonus Trek is part of a global treasure hunting phenomenon called “geocaching.” GPS (Global Positioning System) units are electronic devices used to determine your approximate location within six to 20 feet anywhere on the planet. You just enter a “waypoint” where the geocache is hidden. The rules are very simple:

1. Take something from the cache.
2. Leave something in the cache.
3. Write about it in the log book.

To learn more about the sport of geocaching, visit geocaching.com.

How to find the cache without GPS:
N 27° 55.061 W 081° 34.504
After passing the Gift Shop and Blue Palmetto Café, follow the path to the second Window By The Pond sign. Then follow the signs to the Pine Ridge Nature Preserve trail. Follow the trail to number 14 at the live oak tree and the nap bench. Just before reaching the oak tree and nap bench, look for the saw palmetto on the right side of the trail. The cache is located next to the saw palmetto on the southwest side. Look for the small trail.

N 27° 56.227 W 081° 34.504
Follow the trail to sign number 5. With your back to the sign post look for a clearing on the other side of the trail and to your right. You will see a large juniper tree. The geocache is located next to the fallen log behind this tree.

N 27° 56.272 W 081° 34.383
After passing the Gift Shop and Blue Palmetto Café, follow the path to the second Window By The Pond sign. Then follow the signs to the Pine Ridge Nature Preserve trail. Follow the trail to number 13 you will pass a large pine tree and a small palmetto patch on the left (east) side of the trail. The cache is located on the east side of the palmettos (.75 mile loop hike).

Hiking staffs, medallions and the book, “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder” by Richard Louv are available for purchase in the Gift Shop.

Louv’s book focuses on efforts to reconnect children with nature.
“Healing the broken bond between our young and nature is in our self-interest, not only because aesthetics or justice demand it, but also because our mental, physical, and spiritual health depend upon it.”
-from “Last Child in the Woods,” Algonquin Books

Louv is affiliated with the Children & Nature Network (C&NN), that provides access to the latest news and research in the field and a peer-to-peer network of researchers and individuals, educators and organizations dedicated to children’s health and well-being.

Be sure to register to win a family membership and other prizes that will be awarded at the Grand Finale Celebration at Circle B Bar Reserve October 31 in conjunction with the Water Wings & Wild Things event. The deadline for entries is October 5.

You have the option of trekking ten of the 15 trails on scheduled event dates, or on your own with family and friends. Be sure to find the geocache to validate your treks or have them stamped at the scheduled events. Locations of geocache can be found without a GPS unit.