Spring Break-Day 3

View from an overlook at Petit Jean SP

Tuesday morning, after I finally dragged myself out of bed, Adairmd and I decided to try and find PETIT POLECAT by none other than Silver Eagle. Adairmd said he knew where the area was that it was hidden. So we hopped in my car and went to the overlook. It was beautiful. We were looking out above the clouds in between mountains. We admired the scenery, then found the LB. This box has had quite a few visitors!

After stamping in and taking a few more pictures, we decided it was time to find Baby Bear's HAPPY SUN. We found what we thought was the right trail, and headed down the path. This trail had a self-guided tour. When we got to the bridge, we came to realize that something wasn't adding up right. We finally came to the conclusion that we were on the Cedar Creek Trail rather than the Cedar Falls trail. We made our way back to the trail head, and drove around to Mather Lodge. The Cedar Falls trail was on the other side of the lodge, through the breezeway.

Adairmd and the St. Louis family searching for a cache

At the trail head, we admired another great view of a valley, then got on our way. The beginning of this trail is all down hill. However, it is made of rocks that are supposed to be steps. After climbing down this area, we were good to go. We made our way down the trail and to the bridge. We looked for Baby Bear's box, but just could not find it. I'm sure it's there somewhere, but it was eluding us. We decided to head toward the water fall.

There was a geocache near the water fall that Adairmd wanted to find. When we got to the area where the cache was hidden, we saw a family who looked suspiciously like cachers-and they were. This was a family from St. Louis who were looking for the same cache. Adairmd joined in the hunt, but the cachers came up empty handed. So, it was on to the water fall for us.

We finally made it to the spectacular water fall. In order to get a good view, one has to precariously climb over large rocks or take the rock steps up to another plateau. We chose first to climb over the rocks. Adairmd went out over the rocks a bit further than I did, but we both enjoyed our views of this spectacular 95 foot water fall. We also noticed that the temperature here was a few degrees cooler than it was on other parts of the trail. We took our time here, eating a snack and taking photos. After our break, we decided to head up the stairs to try another view. After we got to the top, Adairmd decided he wanted to take the trail out to get behind the water fall. I told him to have fun! He made his way along the "bowl" and to the back side of the waterfall. After he made it back, we headed back to the trail head.








Cedar Falls

After finally making it back to Mather Lodge, we took a break. We watched the people who were just starting their hike and those who were just beginning the hike and commented on the differences of the demeanor of the starters and the finishers. Those who were just starting their hike were all smiles and laughter-those who were finishing their hike were dragging back up to the lodge and would sit down on the benches in a huff.

We still had one more LB that I wanted to find. We made our way to Davies Bridge to find a box by the Petit Jean Gang. I felt like this box was probably not here, but wanted to try anyway. We made our way to the bridge and the smaller water fall, and where the box was supposed to be. There was a family on that part of the trail and the mom was taking pictures. We took a few pictures of our own, then were finally able to look for the box. It wasn't there as I had imagined.

Now, it was time for me to hide my LB. I decided I wanted one box to be on the Rock Cave Trail. We drove over Davies Bridge and down a gravel road to the trail head. We started out by taking the trail all the way to the Rock Cave, but first we walked over the Turtle Rocks. These are big rocks that are shaped like tortoise shells-pretty amazing. Then, we made it down to Rock Cave. After admiring the cave, we headed back down the trail. Adairmd wanted to find the CCC overlook for the water fall. When we got close, I took a break and he went on to take some more pictures of the falls.

Looking out from Rock Cave

On the way back to the trail head, I hid BALOO. This was the stamp I'd carved the previous night at the camp. After hiding well and getting the clues written down, we headed to Bear Cave to hide my other box. We didn't really take in the scenery or the cave on this particular trail-our one mission was to hide my box, get back to camp, and take a much needed rest. BACK PACK is hidden on this trail.


We spent the rest of the evening back at the camp, preparing for our day at Mt. Magazine.