The hike to this location requires prepperation and protection.
The hike is significant and without water you may find yourself turning back early.
However, we did find a refreshing spring coming out of the shale rock, but not sure how long into the season it lasts.
There are feline predators in the area, and while they may not be interested in adult humans, they may look at children and pets that stray as easy prey.
There are many ways to approach this cache. By trying to make sure we avoided private property, we took the longest route possible, as usual.
The quickest/shortest route in is to follow the Yellow Slide Wash immediately North of the parking coordinates. This will keep you off of any private property that runs just to the South of the wash. So...your hike may not be as significant as ours was.
The following info is from the Rifle Area Chamber of Commerce:
'It is said that there was a Yellow Slide Meteor which had landed in a remote location called the Bookcliffs area west of Rifle during the 1700's. The impact site is believed to be considerably larger than a football field. In 1946, three men hiked to the craters location and recovered a meteor fragment that weighed 237 lbs and was approximately 18? across. The meteorite was found about 3 miles from the believed initial impact site this rock, now resides in the Museum of Natural History in Denver, CO. There are some mistakes in the labeling of the meteor at the Museum that the piece was found in Arizona. Although Rifle residents have tried to get the museum to re-label the meteor, to date the label remains the same. The crater itself consists of a surface layer of fine sand and dirt with a layer of breccia underneath consisting of pulverized and fused oil shale (due to the heat of impact). The yellow color is the direct result of super heating. There is little to no re-growth of vegetation in to the crater due to the age of the strike and the sandy nature of the soil. The steepness of the slope and the sandy soil also leads to lack of water retention.'
The Denver Museum of Nature and Science conducted a study in 1997 and concluded that there is no evidence of meteor impact origin...So the mystery continues.
Congratulations sbunch on the FTF! We guessed that you would be the first on this one, knowing how you like an adventure...but the lengths we had to go through to get you out of hibernation, lol.
Happy Trails/Happy Caching
Additional Waypoints
P1555HW - Yellow Slide Parking
N 39° 33.512 W 107° 49.445
Start here
Yellow Slide
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