From Deming we headed south on NM11 and made our way to Columbus. Once in Columbus we made a stop at Pancho Villa State Park. My Alphabetical New Mexico: P (Pancho Villa) letterbox is there. The box was still there but I wanted to update it - the wood mount on the back of the stamp was warped and the box itself was cracked. So we found the box and switched it out with a new one (same image and same hiding spot). We were only at the park for about 20 minutes before we continued on.From Pancho Villa State Park we headed west on NM9. It was a beautiful and relaxing drive, no traffic and wonderful views.
We drove from Columbus to Hatchita. In Hatchita we stopped to see an old church. From a distance we could see the steeple and from this vantage it looked like a beautiful place. But when we arrived we found the building to be in disrepair. Windows were smashed and the door was boarded up, but still it was beautiful. 
We also visited the Hatchita Rest Area but we refrained from using the facilities. We left Hatchita and continued our drive west and a few miles outside of Hatchita we stopped to find Little Hatchet in the Little Hatchets by wandaandpete. This was a quick and easy find just off the road near the Continental Divide Trail. From here we continued our drive through Antelope and Animas until we arrived at NM80. From Columbus to NM80 is about 88 miles. During our drive we saw the following - 7 Border Patrol vehicles, 6 private vehicles, 9 crows, 1 coyote and 2 dogs. We didn't actually see any people moving around except for the ones driving the vehicles. It was pretty isolated.Once we arrived at NM80 we turned onto NM80 and drove south toward Rodeo. A few miles before Rodeo we turned again and this time headed west on AZ533 towards Portal. F
rom Portal we continued on Forest Road 42 into Cave Creek Canyon Recreation Area. We made our first stop just a little past the ranger station at a pull out with sign that said "Recreation Area'. We took a short hike along the trail here and found two boxes - Elegant Trogon by Azroadie and Cavalry Training by CordivaeBlue. These were both quick and easy finds and in about 30 minutes we were back at the car. From this pull out we continued on Forest Road 42 for a little while and then turned left onto a dirt road for the South Fork Zoological Botanical Area. We drove past the gate and made our way to a parking area about a mile (not sure if this is correct) up the road. From the parking area we started to follow the clues for Thallophyta:Fungi:Pleurotos ostreatus by Desert Flower. We went a short distance and things weren't matching up with the clues so we went back to the parking area and looked around. But still nothing seemed right. Then a couple drove up and we talked to them and asked if they knew the area. They said they did and we asked if they knew of a picnic area. 
They said "yes" and told us how to get there. It was in the same direction we had originally gone, but apparently not far enough. So we walked and then walked some more. We never saw a picnic area. The hike was beautiful and we made five stream crossings and saw two small waterfalls. We passed a sign for Chiricahua Wilderness and eventually arrived at a fence with a pass through. At this point we had walked over a mile and found nothing to match the clues. So we turned around and met up with the couple from the parking area. They told us we passed the picnic area but all the picnic tables and port-a-potties were gone. I remembered the area and thought that it was the picnic area but because I didn't see any table we continued on. With this information we were able to follow the rest of the clues and we found the box. We spent a lot of extra time in the area because of our mistake but it was a nice hike in a beautiful area so it was all good. After getting the box hidden again we made our way back to the car. Now we needed to head for Tucson.From Portal we retraced our drive back to NM80. At NM80 we turned and headed north until we arrived at I10. We took I10 west into Arizona and made our way to the next box.
We exited at Bowie and took Apache Pass Road to Happy Camp Canyon Road and drove to Indian Bread Rocks Recreation Area. Here we looked for "Without Bread All is Misery" by Dawgdok. I followed the clues but didn't find the box. Pretty sure I was in the right place but who knows. So we left the area without finding the box and returned to I10. Our next exit was Dragoon. We left I10 and drove the three miles into the town and then turned onto N Old Ranch Road. This road is dirt and not maintained all that well so it was a bumpy ride for the next two or so miles. Then we arrived at a sign for "Jordan Canyon. Stage Station" and turned left here and drove another mile on an even more unmaintained road to a sign for "Dragoon Station". We parked and walked a short distance to a fence with a gate. We entered the gate and made our way to the ruins of the Dragoon Station and some Confedrate graves. Here we looked for California Column: Ambush at Dragoon Springs by Squatchis. You can read about the California Column at The Civil War & The California Column. We followed the clues and had a hard time locating the group of yuccas. Finally, we found them - burnt. There were two small yuccas that had come up since the fire in the area but the older plants were all black and dead. Surprisingly, we found the box - melted with pages of the logbook laying around, mostly burnt around the edges and we could just barely make our writing in the middle of some of the pages. We put the melted box and the logbook pages in a baggie and took them with us - I will give them to one of the guys who originally planted the box at the event on Saturday. By this time it was 5:00pm and we decided to call it a day.We arrived at the hotel around 6:30pm and got checked in and settled. It was a long day but a good day. We saw some neat places that were out of the way of the main roads. Now we are in Tucson and tomorrow we will do some boxing in the Oro Valley area.
No comments:
Post a Comment