GC5KJ7C Chief Red Cloud's Lookout
Type: Traditional | Size: Small | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Denali41 @ | Hide Date: 01/18/2015 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N40° 55.223 W103° 35.907 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
             

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CONGRATULATIONS TO MooseTag AND Spooty FOR THEIR CO-FTF!!

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The cache is located at the base of a cliff face, the top of which commands superb, long vistas of surrounding lands.  It’s just north of the Indian Caves area of Pawnee National Grassland, situated in terrain and vegetation that must be reminiscent of the country just to the north during pre-settlement times.  Those lands were the central focus of the Oglala Lakota Chief Red Cloud, when between 1866 and 1868 he waged the skillfully executed, effective war (termed by the US government “Red Cloud’s War”) against the US Army and the reckless gold-seekers who poured into the area and destroyed the American Natives’ lands and life style. He fiercely defended his people’s lands and is viewed as one of the most capable Native American opponents the US Army ever faced, as well as a great leader of his Tribe. After he signed a treaty in Washington, D.C., he worked hard to transition his people to a reservation life. Soon before his death he made a statement that's become famous. In referring to the US government he stated: "They made us many promises, more than I can remember. But they kept only one--they promised to take our land...and they took it."

Park at the Indian Caves Windmill--or in times when mud or snow conditions don’t allow access to the windmill, at County Road 124 to the south.  Make the hike across public land to the cache vicinity and consider how Chief Red Cloud, in many terrain settings similar to this, might have used the landscape to monitor and track the army’s specific positions and its strength, and to design the surprise assaults the chief was so noted for. In all directions, the extant landscape from this overlook must be extremely similar to what existed 150 years ago during Red Cloud’s War.

The cache is a moderate-sized jar wrapped in black tape.  It’s hidden at the base of a notch that’s  incut into the cliff face, in a protective nook at the very back end of this broad V notch.  The incut has a nice ledge area at it’s bottom, where the cache is located.  When I hid the container, I sat on the ledge while eating lunch, with my feet on the ground below.  So look for a nice luncheon sitting place as a good hint! A couple of rocks are placed over the cache to keep it in place. Please make certain to replace them.

Satellite signals are variable at the cache site, because of the cliff.  I lost sat reception a couple of times on my GPS.  The best readings might be attained by going to the top of the cliff (it’s easy, and not far above the cache) and getting "close" on the listed coordinates.  Then peer over the edge and you’ll be looking at the lunch sitting ledge.

The hike from parking to GZ crosses extensive gardens of Prickly Pear Cactus. Don’t bring a dog unless the dog has experience with cacti.  My puppy Orizaba has lots of such experience, and had no difficulty.  The area is known for rattlesnakes, so either make this hike in the cool winter (on a day with little wind!), or be especially cautious during seasons or times of day when snakes are active.

From the windmill and back, the round trip distance is more than 2 miles.  If combined with the loop for the nearby Indian Caves multi-cache, expect about 5 miles car-to-car.  The entire loop can be made while staying on public land.  In summer, bring plenty of water.  Have fun, and make certain to spend some time at the top of the cliff pretending you are Chief Red Cloud or his scouts, planning an ambush.

Additional Waypoints

P15KJ7C - Parking
N 40° 54.380 W 103° 36.380
Parking at Indian Caves Windmill

03/17/2018 By fsibero
What a hike and what a view. Bhjalarson suggested this one for our target list today. I've had this one on my "wish list"of caches for the past nine months or so. While it was a little windy today the weather was still great. Thanks for the hike, the great view and the experience.

03/17/2018 By bhjalarson
After finding the Indian Cave Multi we headed towards the Chief Red Cloud cache. The map said only a mile or so to the cache but it seemed a lot farther than that when we finally got to GZ! We made the find and signed the log. This was a good training hike for me so that I will be ready for a trek at Philmont this summer. Tftc.

03/25/2017 By icezebra11
I did some caching on the grasslands today, targeting four Denali41 caches. After making the FTF on How Fast is FAST?! and logging Weld's One and Only, I headed west to go for Indian Caves Multi and this cache. After arriving at the designated parking coordinates I chose to do Indian Caves first. It was a beautiful day on the prairie with the temps in the 50s and just a little breeze. I was able to quickly locate each container and efficiently enter the coordinates for the stage. It went so smoothly that I completed the loop in right at an hour. After finding the final for that one I plugged in the coordinates for this one and headed that way. After some ups and downs I made it to GZ. I looked in the wrong area for a few minutes before deciding I needed to look in the other area. Once I made that change, the cache was in hand quickly. The area reminds me of the terrain in NE Montana where I lived for about 10 years. Thanks Denali41 placing this cache at this nice lookout!!!

03/28/2015 By Tom.dog
Woke up this morning, packed up, and started out with this cache as the main morning goal. I stumbled into far more cactus patches than I did on yesterday's adventure, and was very glad to have worn my good boots. It was awesome to get another look at some of this area's geology along the way.
Made it to GZ fairly quickly and scrambled around for a few minutes, eventually realizing that if I wanted the find I would have to stop searching at the top of the cliff...It was a quick find from there. Amazing views from this spot, I am always amazed at how much open and undeveloped space there is to be seen out here in this region of the country. Had a great hike back to the windmill and was disappointed to have to be heading out. Thanks again for highlighting this great part of the grasslands, I will hope to return to this area in the future!

01/30/2015 By Spooty
Found it at 1224.
Co-FTF with MooseTag!
I have very few FTFs to my name (less than .3% of my finds, I think). I wasn't even looking for this cache, but was looking at Kimball County, Nebraska, just across the border to the north, and saw this.
"Sitting unfound for 9 days?! I've got to hit this tomorrow," I said to myself.
I've been in the PNG about a half dozen times on my own, but thought it might be nice to invite MooseTag. I'd known him from events over the past few months, but we'd never cached together (indeed, I very rarely cache with others). So I sent him an email and got an enthusiastic reply. We met at 11AM the next morning, on the highway, and drove down the County Road. I didn't trust my car on the last mile to the Parking waypoint, so MooseTag drove us in. We had a great hike in, and enjoyed the vistas along the way. At GZ, we spent just a couple of minutes hunting for the cache, and MooseTag managed to spot the cache container first. It looked pretty well-hidden, in my opinion.
Great history accompanying this cache, and great terrain and views along the way. Plus my first co-FTF ever. How can I not give this a Favorite point?
Thanks for a great cache, Denali41 - it was an honor to be first on one of your remote hiking caches!
TNLNSL. TFTC!

This entry was edited by Spooty on Saturday, 31 January 2015 at 03:10:41 UTC.