The Jasmer Challenge (Northern California Edition)
This is one of the most difficult challenges to complete because of the rarity of the earlier caches, therefore, I was relieved to see that I could pick up my three remaining qualifying finds on my road trip this summer. The penultimate cache was Mingo, the oldest existing geocache, and the final one was placed later that summer in one of the most spectacular places I’ve ever been.
I drove from Colorado Springs to Durango, and took a long detour to the Spanish Peaks. Several miles up a graded dirt road, I got to the trailhead and parked my Prius at 11,200 feet.
The cache is only about a half mile from parking, and the trail is mostly flat, so I knew I could accomplish the hike, even with no acclimation to the elevation.
I signed in at the trail head and struck out through the tall trees.
It was not just the scenery taking my breath away.
My goal was not to ascend the peak, but it was always in view.
The colors of some of the flowers were vibrant blue…
… and purple…
I’m glad it was a cloudy day, as the temperature was perfectly cool.
The cache was surrounded by ducs, but I’m not sure if they all were put there by geocachers.
THIS is the view from the cache.
A photo is clearly not sufficient.
I spent about a half hour up there, enjoying some salami and cheese and the surrounding spectacularness.
Wow, now that’s my kind of place!!! What fun! Glad you are having a good time and picking up some great caches along the way. Stay safe!
These posts are all still from my road trip last summer!
Jealous! We’re jealous, jealous, jealous
Well, we hope to see some of these neat places, but at least we’ve been able to enjoy them a little through your blogs. Thanks!