GC82ABD Hidden Mesa Travel Bug Hotel
Type: Traditional | Size: Regular | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: prerules @ | Hide Date: 01/10/2019 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N39° 24.665 W104° 47.705 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
                           

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I have been waiting to place another geocache that would be suitable to host trackables and I finally got around to it. I love the trails at Hidden Mesa because they are suitable for all forms of recreation and the views are great!

This cache will require a hike (or bike or run). It is at least a two mile round trip from the closest parking lot. I would recommend doing the entire seven mile loop and trying to snag all of the geocaches on the mesa. Most of them are pretty easy. I have put the three parking areas and trail-heads down as way-points.

This cache may be difficult to get to if there is a lot of snow on the ground. However, it is available in winter when it is dry. Hours of use for the park are one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset.

In the warmer months, WATCH FOR SNAKES!!!

You are looking for a green ammo can off the beaten path a bit.

It is started with two trackables. If you take one, please replace it with another one. I want this cahce to always have a trackable in it.

Additional Waypoints

P082ABD - Main Parking
N 39° 24.548 W 104° 45.716
This is the main parking lot for Hidden Mesa Open Space.
P182ABD - Secondary Parking #1
N 39° 24.338 W 104° 48.173
There is a parking lot here as well.
P282ABD - Secondary Parking #3
N 39° 25.020 W 104° 46.442
There is a small dirt parking lot on the north side of Castle Oaks Dr which allows access to the trail.
T082ABD - Trailhead #1
N 39° 24.548 W 104° 45.773

T182ABD - Trailhead #2
N 39° 24.332 W 104° 48.188

T282ABD - Trailhead #3
N 39° 25.000 W 104° 46.509

01/19/2020 By 2spacecadets
Nice day to get out today. Had a TB we wanted to drop in a less muggly location so please move it on. TN, L-TB, TFTC.

01/16/2020 By Hikermama3
Found it on this really cool day and wishing that I had brought my other trackable‘s in my pocket but I didn’t think I was going to go very far in this wind. Tftc?

01/11/2020 By Chuckles320
Nice spot for a big cache. Saw no TB's in this hotel today. tftc

12/31/2019 By MountainBear
Found with Java Chip. Nice views from here! TFTC!

11/06/2019 By kkcjrlma
Got picked up at DIA by a friend and we had time to kill so came here to check out the trails. The clouds were so low we couldn't see much of anything. I figured it was too cold for snakes so didn't mind going to get this one. Tftc

06/12/2019 By fearthefish
Out and about caching with the world's most lovable geocacher herndonrd (also known as Mister Disneyland - the happiest man on Earth) and we decided to stop here after grabbing the first to find on a new puzzle placed by the truly colorful LostinDenver.

We had no problem finding the container and herndonrd was gracious enough to sign the log for both of us. After that, we put everything back as we found it and took off down the trail to find another one. Thanks for the fun hide and for your contribution to a great day of caching.

P. S. No animals (including humans, aliens, or PayMeCache) were harmed in the writing of this log.

P. P. S. There were a substantial number of travel bugs in this beautiful ammo can. I understand how bug hotel owners like to have bugs in their hotels. That being said, I firmly believe that travel bugs need to travel and some had been sitting here for over four months. Thus I took a bunch and left one so that there would be one here for the next finder.

06/12/2019 By herndonrd
Stopped on the way back from Rattlesnakes and got this one. Everything is in good shape. FeartheFish filled his pockets with TBs so he was happy. TFTC!

06/12/2019 By fearthefish
Bug drop

05/28/2019 By Kroozer
Enjoyed the hike to this one on a nice cool morning. Great spot for a hide and a container full of goodies! TNLNSL. Thanks for the cache!

05/13/2019 By Jim Reeb
Nice hike to GZ. The container was in super condition. Thanks - Jim and Audrey.

01/12/2019 By prerules
Wow! Can’t believe you four went up there during the snow storm and in the dark! Did you need snowshoes? ??

Anyways, I put in the description that it might not be seen with snow on the ground. I guess it needs to snow about a foot first!

01/12/2019 By PiTime
AtomicCorgi and I just found this one. Looks like we weren’t the first but the FTF was signed on 1/10/19 before publish?

Fun walking out here in the snow storm.

TFTC SL!

01/12/2019 By prerules
Logging trackables.

01/11/2019 By LostinDenver
FTF] with [@intrepiidexplorer on 01/11/2019 at 7:43 pm. We were sitting in Lowry when I got an FTF notification. Several actually. But this one seemed to be the most fun. It has been snowing all day. It's cold. The new cache is only an hour drive away. The cache will take a hike in a wilderness area. So why not? I love adventures. I suggested to @intrepiidexplorer that we should take on names from The Hobbit, but she didn't seem to be too receptive.
We made the drive down to Parker and realized that Parker got quite a bit more snow than the Lowry area did. The FJ was starting to slip and slide. Maybe time to put it in 4 wheel drive, but not yet. We crawled up the road to the stopping point and then got out on foot.
A combination of bright white snow and reflective clouds made it unnecessary to have a flashlight. As we made our way up the hill, @intrepiidexplorer pointed out that deer were watching us on our left. I looked over and saw 3 - including one buck. They seemed to be curious about 2 human who could be in the warmth of a house on a chilly night, but instead chose to trek through snow for no reason apparent to the deer. We continued our meandering trail up toward the cache. At the summit I miss read the GPS and sent us quite a ways in the wrong direction before returning to the right course. We neared the GZ and saw a likely geo-beacon. Thankfully it was the right one. We had now been hiking in foot deep snow for about 25 minutes. The awesome container had 2 TB's. I discovered them. In my confused state, I wrote the date as 1-10 instead of 1-11. Stamped the log, returned the cache to the hide, and headed back.
As with all good adventures, we tried to take a direct route (shortcut?) back to the FJ, which ended up being more difficult than our meandering way up. But we made it back without injury or any other problems. I did have to put the FJ in 4 wheel drive for the drive back home. Thanks for an awesome adventure! TFTC!

01/11/2019 By intrepiidexplorer
LostInDenver and I were the FTF. Sorry to cachers who took that trek after us! We forgot to log right away. It was a long hike we took in the snow and dark. Took us about 30 minutes just for travel time. Finding the cache itself was easy! Tftc!!