GC3RY5VNear the Boundary--Mount Massive Wilderness Area
Type: Traditional
| Size: Small
| Difficulty:
| Terrain:
By: Denali41@
| Hide Date: 08/04/2012
| Status: Available
Country: United States
| State: Colorado Coordinates: N39° 14.973 W106° 29.287 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
Wilderness -- "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain ... an area protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions." —The Wilderness Act of 1964Mount Massive Wilderness Area was designated by the U.S. Congress in 1980. It had been proposed to be an expansion of the adjacent Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness, but an administrative error resulted in its designation as a distinct Wilderness Area. It contains 30,540 acres, and is anchored by Mount Massive, the second-highest peak in Colorado at 14,421 feet elevation. Immediately south of the wilderness stands Mount Elbert, the state’s highest mountain. The North American continent truly crests along this stretch of high peaks within the Sawatch Range, as the Rocky Mountains and the Continental Divide reach higher here than anywhere else from the Arctic Ocean to the Panama Isthmus.
Elevations within Mount Massive Wilderness Area range from 9,700 to 14,421 feet. Twenty miles of maintained trails course through the wilderness, including 10 miles of the Colorado Trail. The wilderness is administered jointly by the San Isabel National Forest and The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that operates the Leadville National Fish Hatchery within the wilderness area.
The cache is located within San Isabel National Forest, several hundred feet north of the wilderness boundary where the border passes across the summit of Busk-Ivanhoe Benchmark peak. The area surrounding the cache is rugged and very rocky, but with careful route-finding the cache site can be easily and safely accessed. The container is a jar that is wrapped with tape, hidden in the overhang of a large boulder on the boulder's north side. Several small rocks cover the cache, and a stick lies alongside it. The cache is located exactly on the Continental Divide. Enjoy the views from the cache site, or better yet, ascend Busk-Ivanhoe Benchmark for superb vistas of the Sawatch Range from Mount of the Holy Cross south to the hulking Mount Massive. It is so large that it obscures views of the tall summits to its south. To the east, the popular 14ers of the Mosquito Range are visible; the high, rugged mountains of the Elk Range dominate the scenes to the west. Look down on nearby Windsor Lake and also note the stunning length of Turquoise Lake!
Enjoy your time hiking to and hanging around the cache environs.
A red jeep TB was left in the cache at the time of cache placement.
09/23/2018 By EntropyEndeavor Was looking for some caches as practice and for acclimatization, and this group looked perfect. Plan was to make my way to the tunnel and then see how I was feeling to decide whether to continue or not. Decided to go for the other virtual and starting at the tunnel seemed like a good place to do it. The climb up started a bit hard, but then got relatively easy along the part with lots of large rocks. Then however it got very hard being already three quarters of the way there trying to climb up the loose gravel with few rocks for hand and foot holds. Knowing from the bottom what it would be like to get up I would have had to decide not to do it. Became very easy to get around up there though so getting the traditional was no problem. Decided there was no way at all I was going down the way I came, so bushwhacked through the forest to make it to the road for a very easy hike but much longer hike down.
To get up to the top of the Continental Divide was so painstakingly slow and careful that there wasn't much of a chance for the exertion of it to get to me because of the altitude. It was easy enough to navigate to this cache however that I did start to feel it.
Easy find. Much easier than I'm used to in a location like this. Almost three years since it's been found, maybe a record for me!
09/30/2015 By estes01 Great name for that hulk of a mountain that blocks out the other 14ers beyond it. So this is a perfect example of following one's expectations to where we thought the cache was hidden (underneath the overhang of a large boulder) rather than checking out GZ first...and there it was, still in good condition and underneath a different large overhang next to a stick :-) The clouds were closing in and we still had one more cache to get, but we stayed long enough to really appreciate the views of all those ranges. Just amazing! Thank you for bringing us out to one more place that we may not have ever seen.
09/30/2015 By WingsAndTales I never get tired of seeing places like this so I hope to be exploring our wonderful state for many years to come. It will take me that long to cover all that there is to see. Estes01 and I parked at the pass north of here and hiked to this one and the virtuals in the area. There isn't any snow yet but it won't be long. For some reason it took us a while to find the cache. It was right where it should be and just as described but we were a little off the mark for a while. TFTC
09/27/2015 By kenyansherpa On a really nice day. Icezebra11 and I hiked the ridge to this one. Thanks to Denali41 for placing it in a spot with gorgeous views overlooking the Mt massive Wilderness Area!!Cache is in excellent shape. IN - An Olympic pin for the upcoming 2020 Games in Tokyo OUT - nothing but a great time! TFTH!!!
09/27/2015 By icezebra11 Kenyansherpa and I met in Leadville this morning with the target being the caches near Hagerman Pass. We had a terrific day in the high country with clear skies, pleasant temps, and little wind. After parking his car at the USFS office, we headed up to the top of the pass in my pickup. The last 3 miles or so are rough but we made it ok.
This cache was our first of the day. After parking at the top of the pass, it was a matter of hiking the ridge top all the way to GZ. We found the container right where the coordinates indicated it would be and signed the log as just the 4th and 5th finders in the 3 years the cache has been active.
We enjoyed the views in all directions and marveled at the size of Mt Massive. Thanks Denali41 for another nice cache in the Near the Boundary series!!!
09/18/2014 By COpackrat Hiked up the ridge after finding the nearby virtuals - thanks for the cache!
Near the Boundary--Mount Massive Wilderness Area
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