The Encino Fire Lookout is a 59-foot high steel tower in the Santa Fe National Forest. The tower, which was built in 1950, sits on a ridgetop at an elevation of 9,929 feet. At the top of the tower is a 7 by 7 foot cab for the firewatcher. During the summer fire season, this is an active firetower that is manned by a firewatcher every day. Norman, the current firewatcher, is a very friendly fellow who shared a lot of stories about recent firespotting from the tower. If you go after the cache, be sure and wave at him in the tower. He knows the cache is nearby.
To get to the lookout, turn south off of Hwy 96 onto Forest Road 100. If coming from Hwy 84, the distance to the turn onto FR100 is about 10 miles. Once on FR100, travel for about 9 miles to where Forest Road 100A turns off to the right. A waypoint for the turn is provided. Once on FR100A, travel about 3 miles to the lookout. The road is well graded the whole way and most cars should be able to make the trip. There is a gate approximately 1/2 mile from the lookout. When we placed the cache the gate was open. However, we have since learned that sometimes the gate is closed. If the gate is closed, you will have to hike the final 1/2 mile to the cache. The cache is a regular sized container hidden about 300 feet from the tower. There is an unactivated personal geocoin as a ftf prize.
Lookout caches have always been our favorites, so much so that we've completed Fire Lookout Challenges in both Washington State and Oregon. We are currently working on completing one in Idaho as well. Since moving to NM recently, we realized that there weren't too many of these type of hides here, so this is a start. We're hoping to encourage other cachers to place caches at active or former lookouts sites for us and others to find. They rarely disappoint. The drives or hikes can sometimes be challenging, but you are often rewarded with beautiful views, rich history and perhaps a friendly conversation with a dedicated fire watcher! If you are interested in finding some of these lookout sites, here is a link to the National Registry of NM Lookouts. Enjoy!
Congratulations to Fugads for the FTF! 