Immediately after leaving the public road and entering the woods
as per the instructions below the land owner asks that geocachers
respect his property and that they conduct themselves safely. This
large rock shelter is located on the steep slopes of Blacklick
valley below Heshbon.The hillside leading up to the shelter is
steep but not extremely so. I found this gem a few weeks ago while
looking for some other rock formations which I had photographed 20
years ago when I had last passed through this valley.
A rock shelter is the word I would use for this cache site but
it can technically be called a cave as well as I've recently
learned.One of the nicest things that this site has going for it is
that it is practically unspoiled.Because of it's steep rocky
location there are no atv trails leading to it or anywhere near
it.No hang out for kids to party at and leave garbage behind.The
inner space is quite large,it could sleep many Indians at one time
which it almost undoubtedly has done in the past I would believe.
It is on a due northern exposure so it would probably only have
been used for shelter in the warmer months.
As you can see by one of the wide panoramic photos included
below,this shelter consists of a massive boulder teetering on a
rock outcrop which extends far along the hillside.
The hike takes me about 25 minutes from these parking
coordinates N40 27.959 W79 06.614 After a short walk down over the
hill and across a creek (marked by pink ribbons) you'll join up
with a jeep trail (nice trail,no mud) that will take you around the
hillside and below the rock shelter.The trail takes you through
scenic open woods with many enormous boulders on both sides of the
trail.
There are 2 smaller rock shelters/overhangs (jpg links below)
separated by only a few hundred yards that you can explore,they too
are just a few hundred yards off the trail on the way in at these
coordinates N40 28.285 W79 07.069 and N40 28.268 W79 07.112
When going for the large rock shelter (cache site) you can
choose to veer off the trail at this point 40 28.317 79 07.236 and
follow a lesser trail that peters out up around the hillside to the
cache site.The rocks in this part of the valley are not as bad as
some other areas are but you will still have a little rock hopping
to do. If you continue down the jeep trail to here 40 28.381 79
07.383 (marked by 3 stones I've pile on top of each other on the
left) you can follow a much less rocky trail (narrow foot trail)
but the disadvantage is that it takes you straight up over the
hill.Good luck,it's quite an adventure !