!!THIS IS A LOW CELL SERVICE AREA. FOR THAT REASON, DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO FIND THE CACHE ARE BELOW. IT IS RECOMMENDED TO DOWNLOAD THE CACHE AND THE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE VISITING!!
POUDRE FALLS
“...The water has carved a bowl back into the rock and the sound is wonderful, particularly since it's punctuated by the clicking and rumbling of the rocks beating against one another in the plunge pool below the leap...”
- Marc Conly, Waterfalls of Colorado
Poudre Falls is a rare example of a waterfall located along a major river system. The immense amount of water is forced in shallow channels carved by the water, and erupts in a splendor of white water and deafening noise. (Taken Oct. 2021 - imagine what it looks like after snowmelt!)
Poudre Falls is located along the Cache La Poudre River (fitting for a geocache, right?) The Cache La Poudre River starts in Poudre Lake along the continental divide. In fact, you can visit the headwaters of the Cache La Poudre River if you take Trail Ridge Road to Milner Pass - no hiking required! After starting at Poudre Lake, the Cache La Poudre River flows east of Cameron Pass and forms Poudre Canyon, which CO 14 was built through. This happens to also be where Poudre Falls is. After crossing the falls, the river cuts through Fort Collins and Greeley and enters the South Platte River 126 miles later. In total, the Cache La Poudre River has two major tributaries, many class IV-VI rapids, and one awesome waterfall.
The name "Cache la Poudre" is French for "where the powder was hidden." As the story goes, there was a group of French explorers that got caught in a blizzard and hid their gunpowder along the banks of the river. Thus, the name "Cache la Poudre" was born.
Poudre Falls is one of the 81 officially named and surveyed waterfalls in Colorado. This cache is only the 4th to be hidden at an official waterfall so far! The falls itself drops over about 100 yards in three leaps. The first two are characteristic 15 foot drops that are similar to many other falls in the state, the third is very unique as it drops into a mini cave that the falls has eroded away. The sound coming from the entire canyon comes from this third drop, which can't be more than 6 feet. I definitely encourage exploring around the river and the falls, but be careful of the steep drop offs that are around the leaps. Anyways, here's how to get to the cache:
HOW TO FIND:
From the parking area, walk towards the sign for Poudre Falls that lets ongoing traffic know about the waterfall that they just missed. Luckily, you didn't!
Walk slightly past the sign and go down towards the waterfall.
The hole where you will find an ammo can! Have fun!
This is one of the CO Waterfall Series caches, inspired by worldwaterfalldatabase.com and Marc Conly, author of Waterfalls of Colorado. Other caches in this series can be found here!