Well, the woodcutter's trusty companion finally graduated from the UA's Eller College. And he even has a job! To celebrate, he wanted to go back to French Joe Canyon where he visited on a field trip while taking a mineralogy class at the U. This was our first stop; to see some billion year old rocks with some much younger rocks over top. We brought along Sneakiekittie with us to show her what we do with her car when we borrow it.
To get to the cache, take Exit 302 off I-10. Head south to French Joe Canyon, which is the first right turn after Kartchner Cavern State Park. Road into the canyon and to the cache is rugged, bumpy, rocky, and rutted. A 4WD or high clearance vehicle, like a pick-up, will do just fine on this road. We took Sneakiekittie's Toyota Matrix and we were fine up until the last quarter mile in the canyon, well beyond this cache. GPS will tell you when to park for the cache. Then you gotta climb a little hill. Cache is in a tin and where else would it be but among the rocks! Cache is at 5067 ft. elevation and woodcutter did get all the way up to it but was 10 minutes behind Sneakiekittie who is part mountain goat. The picture looking up at Trusty Companion and Sneakiekittie was taken when woodcutter was about one-third of the way down hill. Shortly thereafter woodcutter fell hard on her backside. So do be careful.
For a mini rock lesson, the rocks on the top of the hill and by the cache are geologically recent. And they lay cross ways to the rocks underneath. If you come down the hill by the big oak, look by its trunk. You will see Marbled rock near the oak's trunk. That has been uplifted and completely turned horizontally. That's the really old rock that the mineralogy classes come out here twice a year to see. There are more pieces of that rock showing around to the east of the oak tree.
After we left this cache we headed into French Joe Canyon and parked at the end of the road. Did the geocache Double or Nothing on our way to hide another cache and look at some more rocks.