One of the Amigo's has fallen so we have renamed this one from Tres to Dos.
We have been going up into this mountain area for a few years now. It took us a year just figuring out how to get on the elusive truck trail. There
were two regular caches on the mountain so we decided to make the trip a little more worthwhile for those venturing
here by adding three more in very easy to access spots along the truck trail.
All three are very close to view spots with ample parking and require no
bushwhacking to get to.
Driving Directions: Check out Microwave Ants
for directions on how to get onto the truck trail
This was the first of three we placed one weekend and is an oversized
micro-cache (5 x 3 inch tupperware) with just a few small items including some
geodes we dug up at the Hauser Geode Beds last winter.
The Century Plant:
Range
Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts at higher elevations from southeastern California, to western Texas and south to northern Mexico.
Habitat
Dry, rocky desert slopes.
Flower
Yellow flowers composed of 6 petals, bloom June through August. Flowers grow in clusters and face upward at the end of horizontal branches, appearing only near the top of the stalk
Description
This unique native plant has a tall, thin stalk from 10 to 14 feet high that grows from a thick basal rosette of gray-green leaves. The leaves are 10 to 18 inches long with long, sharp, terminal spines and shorter spines along the edges. The stalk can be up to 4 inches in diameter.
Members of the Amaryllis Family, century plants take many years to flower, although not a century. The Century Plant provided Native Americans with a source of soap, food, fiber, medicine and weapons.
Agavi americana, can grow up to 40 feet high with much longer leaves and larger stalk. This American Century Plant is sometimes grown in southern California as an ornamental. It is used commercially in Mexico as a source to produce the liquors tequila, pulque and mescal.