Hike: Roughly 1/2 mile from Cottonwood Trailhead, or one mile round-trip
Terrain: Mostly smooth on well-established trails, minimal elevation gain.
Difficulty: Camo container in the tree, so it may take a couple minutes to spot, but then a quick grab.
No field puzzle.
I carved this stamp for a letterboxing event called "Love From a Distance: Spread Hearts, Not Covid" which was held virtually in January 2021. The idea of this was to bring together our community and share the love of letterboxing, stamp making, and the outdoors, while apart and keeping safe distances. All of the stamps for this event include a heart and have the theme of sharing love. I thought it would be fun to share some hearts with the Geocaching community as well.
The Galesteo Basin Preserve is a great place to share the love of the trails at a safe distance. It is one of my favorite places to hike and take my dogs. There are some great views without too difficult of terrain.
This letterbox can be found at the published coordinates. The closest parking is at the "Cottonwood Trailhead," although the trails throughout the Preserve are all connected. It is fairly smooth and flat terrain between the trailhead and the cache, and it is great for both hikers and bikers. Look for a PET tube hanging about 6 feet high near the outside of the tree, west side.
Please do not take the stamp. There is no pen or ink in the box, so if you want a copy of the stamp, please bring your own, I would suggest red.
The Galisteo Basin Preserve is public open space, open from sunrise to sunset. There is spotty phone service in the area, so I'd suggest downloading the cache information for offline mode.