GC5AX89 Explore!
Type: Letterbox | Size: Regular | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: kekj @ | Hide Date: 08/14/2014 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N38° 42.984 W108° 03.224 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
           

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Explore!  Celebrating 50 Years of Wilderness Preservation.

A letterbox hybrid with rubber stamp and log. BYO stamp pad.

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On September 3, 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Wilderness Act. 

This historic bill established the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) and set aside an initial 9.1 million acres of wildlands for the use and benefit of the American people.

In these lands natural processes are the primary influences and human activities are limited. Here we experience wild places without disturbing or destroying the action of these natural processes.

Over the past 50 years, and as a result of America's support for wilderness, Congress has added over 100 million acres to this critical land preservation system.

As we set this cache, the U.S. Forest Service celebrates 50 years of the Wilderness Act.  Join the celebration by enjoying the vast public lands surrounding us here in Delta.  EXPLORE! Yours to enjoy; yours to protect.

The Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests (GMUG) are a combination of separate National Forests surrounding Delta. These three combined Forests cover 3,161,900 acres of public land. 10 wilderness areas are contained in the GMUG (Collegiate Peaks, Fossil Ridge, La Garita, Lizard Head, Maroon Bells-Snowmass, Mt. Sneffels, Powderhorn, Ruggeds, Uncompahgre, and West Elk) totaling 498,152 acres (19%).

The Forests vary in elevation from 5,800 feet above sea level in Roubideau Creek Canyon to 14,309 feet on Uncompahgre Peak.  They include spectacular features like the 355 foot high Bridal Veil falls; the Grand Mesa - one of the world's largest flat top mountains with over 300 lakes, and Alpine Tunnel - once the highest railroad tunnel in North America. All above information from http://www.fs.usda.gov/gmug

The above web site also has a variety of maps available to help you plan your visit to the forests. You will find a growing number of geocaches in these areas, so that is an additional map you’ll want to check when you go out and EXPLORE!

CONGRATS! We are extremely pleased to confirm hauberktheold for FTF on 8-14-14!

06/23/2019 By iMacKid
Out with the CO learning more about geocaching, this is my first Letter Box, swapped stamps and dropped a Travel bug. TFTC SL

06/22/2019 By kekj
Out with newbie iMacKid doing maintenance of some, finding others, and using this one as a part of GC101 to show him his first letterbox cache and swapped stamps.

05/28/2019 By HermanDaGerman & Frauline
Making our way our way home from Geowoodstock one cache at a time. 14633

05/28/2019 By rug cutters
May 28, 2019 7:16 PM 10576 TFTC and TFTF Rug Cutters

05/28/2019 By dzadventurers
TFTC

08/22/2018 By kekj
Dropped off a Tbug that really does fit the theme of the cache - a Dinosaur!
Believe it or not, the largest set of (pretty much complete) dinosaur bones in the world were found within the Uncompahgre National Forest about 15 miles from this location! They are currently in the possession of the Brigham Young University who has offered to return them to Delta County but they would have to build a 40' tall building to house them in and do not have the funds as the completed skeleton is near 100' long by 25' at the shoulder with the neck alone being 40' long! Total weight is estimated at 75 + tons
See these web sites for more info on the quarry: - wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_Mesa_Quarry
And "Supersaurus vivianae" : - wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersaurus

08/18/2018 By MsHendrix
What a splendid find for my souvenir! I haven't found a letterbox since the Extraterrestrial Highway in the days before there were any caches on NVSR 375. There's that, added to the fact that features in the cache description are some of the reasons I'm excited to be living here in Delta now. Finally, it was a quick, invisible-to-muggles find. All of the necessary attributes for a favorite point. I signed, took a Princess Tiana pad, and left a postcard from an art exhibit in my hometown along with a Quad Cities souvenir. TFTC and Happy International Geocaching Day!

08/16/2018 By Stewartfaminthewoods
GMUG Supervisor's Office being remodeled.

08/08/2018 By rocketglider
Thanks for the hide.

08/07/2018 By djkfisher
Out from Bend Oregon fo a little work and a little caching. Thanks so much to all the cacher’s that have placed these smiles for all to find.

Nice and I grabbed the TB

We are Geocaching the world one cache at a time!  May the wind be at your back and the sun shine warm upon your face!

Found on my iPhoneX using the Cachly APP

09/04/2017 By dustyriver
A good find with Liquidelle, BriGuy on our Labor day weekend grabbing caches trip. We covered over 20 counties over the three day weekend and even got to dip into Utah. Good traveling as one of the SWAC crew, Best Wishes, DustyRiver