Colorado Geocaching...

Even though Ron is walking with a cane and knee brace, we ventured out on our first geocaching adventure in Colorado. (For those of you who are saying "What in the heck is geocaching....go to the end of this post for an explanation.) We tried to find 4 of them but was only successful on the 2 earthcaches. The earthcaches took us to south rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Even though we have visited numerous, magnificent canyons over the past month, this smaller canyon holds its' own charm. The 2 overviews we visited to obtain the answer to the geocaching questions had the Gunnison River running through the middle....I'm always in awe of the size, depth and rush of the river. We will visit again in the next couple of weeks to take the entire 12 mile tour through the canyon.


Drive into Black Canyon of Gunnison...the clouds were threatening but we only
encountered a short drizzle.



The Gunnison River looks so small from this viewpoint even though the river bed descends an average of 95 feet per mile throughout the 48 miles of the canyon. At the steepest point the river descends 480 feet in one 2 mile stretch.


Another view of the Canyon.

We even saw some "wildlife".....


Cute, little chipmunks scampering all around.



Eagle circling overhead....probably looking for dinner - the cute, little chipmunks.

The other two caches were geocaches and we were not successful in finding either one. The most interesting of the two was a walking tour of downtown Montrose. The city has placed numerous placards on the sidewalks noting the history of the town and its buildings. There were 8 questions that you had to find the answers to on the placards. Once you found the answers you added the numbers and applied to a formula to find the missing links in the coordinates for the final find. We found all the answers but were not able to find the final cache....so we either missed on one of the answers or in our calculation. Finding the cache is fun but the best part of geocaching is the places it takes you and the sights you would not normally see..or take the time to see. It took us on a nice stroll of downtown. We won't give up....will try it again another day!

Hope all is well.

Joan & Ron


P.S. Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with handheld GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Caches like the tour of downtown Montrose are called a "mystery or puzzle" cache.

An EarthCache is a special place that people can visit to learn about a unique feature or aspect of our Earth. EarthCaches include a set of educational notes and the details about where to find the location (latitude and longitude). Visitors to EarthCaches can see how our planet has been shaped by geological processes, how we manage the resources and how scientists gather evidence to learn about the Earth.

To learn more about geocaching visit - www.geocaching.com