Red Creek Fortress - Blue Mesa Reservoir Area Traditional Cache
Red Creek Fortress - Blue Mesa Reservoir Area
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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Are you feeling adventurous? This is a 1/3 mile MAJOR hike uphill at high elevation, but it feels more like a full mile. The terrain is rocky and rubbly. Not difficult to hike up, but NOT EASY coming down. It's steep, and the rubble is like ball bearings on the way down – very easy to slip and fall. It’s safer to zigzag than to go straight down. Wear good hiking shoes, and consider bringing hiking sticks. Elevation at cache is 8400'.
Red Creek Road off of HWY 50 is a well-graded dirt car-road. This road is closed from March 1 until May 30.
About 1/2 mile up Red Creek Road is a State Wildlife Area sign which is very misleading. This sign is actually at the boundary between NPS land and BLM land, and the road does not enter the wildlife area for another 1 1/2 miles. The cache and the route to the cache are not on state wildlife land.
THE EASIEST AND SAFEST WAY TO THE CACHE IS NOT THE SHORTEST WAY! TAKE TIME TO LOOK AROUND BEFORE YOU PARK AND START HIKING. (For best route, see Hint #1.) You will be hiking up to some spectacular rock formations eroded out of layers of volcanic breccia and welded tuff. (Red Creek Fortress is not an official name.) It’s a veritable wonderland up there, and if you have enough energy left once you get there, you can spend the whole day hiking around and exploring. There are some interesting spring-fed bat-caves to the west of the Fortress, however, it's a difficult hike to get to them. Notice the poison-green lichens that grow on the Fortress wall – they look like polka dots. Have fun, and be careful on the way down!
This cache is one of several caches around Blue Mesa Reservoir. The cache is in a clear plastic box with a red rim.
***Hunting Season Advisory***
Hunting seasons in Colorado are in September and October. If you venture out during hunting season, be sure to wear some blaze orange and be noisy.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
1. Orfg ebhgr fgnegf sebz fvqr-ebnq ba gur yrsg, 1/3 zvyr fbhgu bs gur pnpur.
2. Ybbx va gur fznyy ebpx sbezngvba.