Not Quite To Denver

As soon as I finished work on yesterday Thomas and I headed out to Colorado. I don't get off of work until 6:00pm on Thursday so we kind of got a late start. The drive from Santa Fe went well. We stopped for a quick bite to eat in Las Vegas, NM and then headed to Maxwell, NM. I was determined to find a box by stormcrow (Eagle Tail Mountain) before it got dark. Well I found it as the last rays of sunlight sank below the mountains. I brought the box back to the car to stamp in, and then I had to use a flashlight to rehide it. It all went very well and now I have a great carving from stormcrow.

After driving for a while we began to get tired and made it as far as Colorado Springs. We found a hotel easy enough and were in bed faster than you can say Goodnight! I got a great night's sleep and woke up this morning ready to go. We started the day with a nice breakfast and then headed out to find a box that I had solved a puzzle for. Now that I knew its location we headed there. About one mile of hiking brought us to the place and viola! I found the box. This box is box one of a three box series. To get to box 2 you had to find box 1. In box 1 there was another puzzle to solve to find box 2 - can you say HARD! - I still haven't figured it out. I guess boxes 2 & 3 will have to wait for another trip.

We decided we wanted to get to Golden this afternoon so we headed north. Not wanting to spend our day in traffic we avoided I-25 and headed up to Golden on back roads. When we arrived in Morrison I saw a sign for Red Rocks State Park. Neither Thomas nor I had ever been so we made a detour. I checked my list of boxes and found that I knew of one box in the park and possibly a second. We arrived to mass chaos. Green Mountain High School was holding its graduation ceremonies in the amphitheater. So we left that area and found some parking so that we could search for the box. We had a pleasant hike and found the box - right where it was suppose to be. Feeling confident we attempted the second box. Disappointment! We weren't able to find it - I think we were in the right park and area but we weren't able to decipher the cryptic clues to find the box. Oh well, another trip maybe.



It was late afternoon so we made out way to Golden. Since the day still had a good amount of sunlight left we headed up Lookout Mountain. In search of Buffalo Bill Cody and the first box in the Lariat Loop Series. We found Blue - the first box in the Lariat Loop Series and in the logbook was the location for the next box in the series. Our next stop was the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum and Gravesite. An incredible resting place for Bill and some terrific views. We found the box easily enough and was I impressed. The logbook and the stamp carving were absolutely fabulous. And since this was my 500th find I was estatic. Now that I had the starting location and the clues for the next box in the Lariat Loop Series so we headed for that box. Bingo! We found it relatively fast, stamped in, rehid the box and headed for the hotel. We wanted to get checked in and then get some dinner. We also needed to rest. We got in a good 9 miles of hiking and walking. I am sure we will sleep good again tonight.

We will continue searching for the remaining Lariat Loop Series boxes tomorrow and I will post again at the end of another day of letterboxing!