GCPBGQ Traditional Cache B-24 Liberator
Type: Traditional | Size: Regular Regular | Difficulty: 2.5 out of 5 | Terrain: 3 out of 5
By: GunniGirl @ | Hide Date: 06/17/2005 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N38° 45.938 W106° 39.262 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 9
Dogs  Takes less than an hour  Scenic view  No Poison plants  Not Wheelchair accessible  Camping available 

On July 19, 1943, a US Army Air Corps B-24 Liberator bomber went out of control and broke apart in the air over a canyon outside of Gunnison, Colorado. Its pieces fell onto a hillside overlooking the canyon, where some parts still remain today. All aboard were killed. This cache is placed in their honor.
The nearest parking to the cache is at 38°45.979N, 106°39.214W. Cache is in a small frosty white plastic container with blue trim around the lid. It is an easy walk most of the way to the cache, but a little rock crawling is required.

The road to the cache area is open year around, but the cache would be difficult to reach if snow were present.

Original contents were:

log book & pencil
mini lint roller
stretchy lizard
Canadian $2
Colorado keyring
dinosaur
carpenter's pencil
die cast race car
Bugs in Yer Lunch~KA #10 travel bug


The actual crash site is on top of the hill behind the Geocache. A memorial brass plaque is mounted on a rock at the site. A DIFFICULT hiking trail leads to the crash site, where a few parts of the plane can still be seen. The start of the trail is no longer marked. If you want to try to determine the starting point for the uphill climb, take at look at the bottom of the hillside beside the tree at 38°45.953N, 106°39.309W. Beyond that, you are on your own. I don't know if any of the orange ribbons that once marked the way are still in place.
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Driving Directions

 Logs

10 Logs: Found it 9  Didn't find it 1  

Found it 07/08/2018 By krazykatzen
Lots and lots of hiding places here, so it took some effort to find. As other cachers have noted, the location is a little south of GZ (to your left if facing cliff). There is an old log leaning up into the rockpile that somewhat points the direction to the cache.

On a boulder nearby, someone had left a fragment of heavy-gauge aluminum, so I wonder if that was from the wreckage. Hard to imagine tragedy in such a peaceful place. TNLN

Found it 10/28/2017 By BG2015
Checked around GZ to no avail but luckily I was able to use alternate coordinates and see some old logs and I made my second hike a little higher and saw the cache. Great information across the road on this tragic event. Thanks for spotlighting this.

Found it 08/05/2017 By Our names spell TACO
100th find! TFTC

I agree, it was off cords, but the hubby found it anyway!

Found it 07/26/2017 By mikebunny
Found this interesting cache on what looked like a really cloudy stormy day! But the sun came out - we found the cache! It was off of the coords. listed but we did find it. We signed the log, put some toys into it, and re-hid it. Thanks for the hide. (The area around here is just magnificent!)

Found it 07/21/2017 By Knyte7
Interesting spot. Located 60 feet South and up rock slope from my GPS ground zero coordinates. Left Fort McHenry. Thanks for placing. K7
GCPBGQ

Found it 09/04/2016 By Vin Fiz
Found along with tsumommy. TFTC!

Found it 09/04/2016 By tsumommy
TFTC!

Didn't find it 09/03/2016 By sore feet & bad knees
We looked low and we looked high in the boulders but couldn't find the cache. We found a place by the huge dead tree laying towards the boulders, that looked like a place it may have been hidden under pile of wood, but no cache there. We had fun anyway looking around the rocks and the woods. I hope the next cacher finds it.

Found it 07/28/2016 By go4gold
TFTC. Love the history!

Found it 07/24/2016 By darthvader99334
TFTC