Las Cienegas Traditional Cache

This is a regular geocache in the Empire Ranch/Las Cienegas National Conservation Area managed by the BLM. The Conservation Area requires neither permit nor fees to visit.

In the last days of the Clinton Presidency many pieces of land were set aside to add acreage to our national parks and make new national monuments. The Las Cienegas National Conservation Area is also a legacy of Clinton's land saving last days. We found this area while looking on the Internet for more about the Cienega creek area. Here are 2 links we liked: http://gorp.away.com/gorp/location/az/az_empi.htm and http://www.empireranchfoundation.org/RanchInfo.htm. The Empire Ranch site has driving directions from both Tucson and Sonoita.

To reach our cache, we headed south on Hwy 83 and then turned east between Milepost 40 and 39 (N31° 46.127' W110° 40.950'). The road is dirt but is easily passable by passenger cars. A short distance into the Conservation Area there is a kiosk with a great map. Follow main road in and past the sign that says Headquarters and follow the part of that sign that says to All Other Roads. Main road ends at a T. Head south; appropriately the road is called South Road. This geocache, our second in the Conservation Area, is along the South Road. There is good parking within 750 feet of cache. When we left cache we continued south along South Road and came out on Hwy 82 at N31° 42.055' W110° 35.562'. This entrance into the Conservation Area is just east of the town of Sonoita.