GC4ERW3 The Buck Eighty Cache
Type: Traditional | Size: Regular | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Llamacamper2 @ | Hide Date: 06/19/2013 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N38° 38.219 W105° 57.139 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
           

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A 40 minute drive (11 miles) from Salida on a good but winding mountain gravel road.  Cache is a short hike (couple hundred yards) from parking area.

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At the north edge of Salida on Hwy 291, turn onto County Road 175 (Ute Trail) directly across from the hospital entrance.  Follow CR 175 for 8 miles (Spiral Drive is a nice side trip!) and then bear left (NW) onto County Road 185 (Aspen Ridge) following the sign that says Turret 4 miles.  In 2 miles, you will pass the water-filled M&S Quarry and see the turn-off to Turret.  You will continue on past, staying on CR 185 for less than a mile to the Calumet Mine area.  There is a wide spot in the road where you can park to your left (north side of road).  Welcome to the Calumet Camp.  You will see remains of some rock buildings along Railroad Gulch.  This was where some of the miners stayed that worked at the Colorado Coal & Iron Company's Calumet iron mine across the road to the south and well up on the ridge.  This was also the end of the Calumet Branch of the Rio Grande Railroad that ran from Hecla Junction just below Browns Canyon on the Arkansas river, through Box Canyon (150 feet deep and only wide enough in spots for the train!).  The engines were reversed on a turn-table just across from the loading docks, located about where you are probably parked.  Look for some large granite blocks with bolts in them.  Calumet Camp was only active from 1881 until 1901 when a flash flood destroyed the railroad line several miles west in Box Canyon.  According to Dick Dixon, in his history of this area, Trails Among the Columbine, Calumet Camp had its own post office and "a log saloon with a reputation for drunkenness, fights, crooked gambling and bad whiskey."  We hope you enjoy the area, the history and the cache.  We also recommend a side trip to the historic ghost town of Turret with a "short but strenuous hike" to Swinging Rock for another cache with a great view.

04/28/2019 By <>
ROAD TRIP from Canon City to Guffey, then dirt roads south and west to Salida. I found it about 20 feet south of my gz - at a different barrier. < > is glad to log another smiley, tfth.

04/27/2019 By YamaGypsy
We circled around quite a bit and finally found it after widening our search. Previous logs saying 20-30 feet helped vector us in. Cache is in great shape. Thanks for bringing us to this area!

11/04/2018 By Back Country Horsemen
So interesting & well worth the drive after hiking up to the crater. We found the cache about 35' SE from GZ. But not too hard.

09/20/2018 By Birddroppings
Great ride up the mountains to see the colors, get off the beaten path, and camp and 4WD. Not to mention grab some caches and take short hikes.

TFTC SL

08/05/2018 By Dean & Chris
We love learning about the history of a place. Amazing. Too bad that this cache gets visited so rarely. We found it without problems. The arrow pointed right too it. Thanks for putting a cache out here for us to find.

10/22/2017 By StoneSense
Neat place! Lots of ruins to search, but no luck today. We were careful not to disturb the walls as we searched, hard to believe some of the rocks are still standing.

06/08/2016 By loneranger
Loneranger and Silver out for a ride, finding a few caches along the trail. Loneranger looked at GZ before reading earlier logs, then expanded the search area. Found the nicely hidden cache 25' E from GZ. Thanks for the history lesson!

04/10/2016 By Sunevaders
This one took some work. Gps didn't take us right to it and very well hidden.

09/24/2015 By two much fun
Great mining area cache. A little bounce on the cords, not bad. My gps kept bringing me back to the same spot, but we found the cache 20-30 ft. away from that spot after a half hour. Expand the search area. l-TB t-xmas pin tftc sl