GRF279 Rio Grande Traditional Cache
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(micro)
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Guard Rail Fun! A nice quick park and grab micro.
Looking for a really challenging cache? This isn't it!
Looking for a magnificent location with a beautiful view? This isn't it!
Looking for a cache where you can drop off some travel bugs? This isn't it!
Looking for a nice, easy cache that doesn't involve a walk in the woods? You won't get any ticks, your shoes won't get dirty, and unless you are really, really directionally challenged, you won't spend very long looking for this cache.
If you hate micros, don't stop! Otherwise, I hope you have fun, and happy caching!
Watch for more of this series!
Thanks to Lostnspace who started this nationwide series of caches.
Check out his cache GC20PGH for the origination of these easy finds.
Rio Grande
If you are used to the rivers of the east and north (Mississippi, Ohio, Columbia), the Rio Grande that you see here may be a bit of a disappointment. But in the arid high mountains and valleys, it is a significant body of water of which many tales have been told and songs sung. To the south in White Rock is an overlook that affords spectacular views of the river cutting its way south. To the north is the breathtaking gorge near Taos. Here in Espanola is where the Rio Grande meets with the Rio Chama and the Rio Santa Cruz to form one of the largest flows of water heading south.
The Rio Grande (known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte, or simply Río Bravo) flows from 12,000 feet elevation along Canby Mountain in southwestern Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes. According to the International Boundary and Water Commission, its total length was 1,896 miles (3,051 km) in the late 1980s. Depending on how it is measured, the Rio Grande is the fourth or fifth longest river system in North America. The water use of big cities and irrigated acreage along the river has taken a toll on the river's flow; less than a fifth of its historical discharge reaches the sea today and in a few places south of Elephant Butte it can be completely dry in some seasons.
South where NM 30 meets with NM 502 and crosses the Rio Grande is the location of the Otowi Bridge and its famed stage house tender Edith Warner (if you are interested read “The House at Otowi Bridge” by Peggy Pond Church). She became good friends of Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein during the Manhattan Project and lived in the structures across the road from the old bridge. The Otowi Bridge was a single-lane suspension bridge of 250-ft span, 10 ft wide, and designed for 10-ton loading built in 1924. That version of the bridge has been refurbished and still spans the river just below the current highway bridge installed in the early 1990s. The old bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
With all the tribal lands around (off limits for caches), this is one of the few places to put a cache along the river. The traffic on this road can be busy so I gave a small +up for stealth. The cache is located such that it can be accessed entirely from BEHIND the guard rail. You should not have to go onto the road surface to get this one. You still might consider leaving the young geokids in the car though.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
ng gur genafvgvba