The New Mexico Challenge - Los Alamos County Traditional Geocache

Los Alamos County

This cache is part of the New Mexico Challenge. One cache is hidden in each of New Mexico's 33 counties.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it is to find and log all 33 caches with a photo of yourself at the cache site.

Los Alamos County is by far the smallest county in New Mexico with only 109 square miles, 42 of which are taken up by Los Alamos National Laboratory. The presence of the laboratory makes for an unusual community, with the highest density of PhD degree holders of any county in the country. Similarly, it has one of the highest standards of living and the fourth-highest mean income of all counties in the country. However, one of the best aspects of Los Alamos County is its natural splendor.

Los Alamos County sports some fascinating geology, ranging from its lowest point along the shores of the Rio Grande (~5,600') to its highest point on the slopes of Caballo Mountain (~10,400'). Much of the county sits on the Pajarito Plateau, an enormous deposit of volcanic tuff laid down as the result of a huge eruption over one million years ago. The Jemez Mountains, which stick up above the Pajarito Plateau, are the remains of an enormous volcano that is speculated to have been over 16,000' tall.

The hike to this geocache will take you on a scenic tour of some of the Pajarito Plateau, walking down Water Canyon about half way to the Rio Grande from State Road 4. Start your hike (or mountain bike ride) at N 35 48.220, W 106 14.730. You will see many layers of deposits from the volcano including welded tuff and pumice towards the beginning of the hike, and darker basalt down lower in the canyon.

The wide upper canyon is a great location for seeing representatives of the typical plant and animal life of Los Alamos County. As you hike past the tall Ponderosa pines, take a moment to smell the bark at close range. The fragrance is quite surprising and pleasant. The cache is hidden at an overlook of lower Water Canyon, which is considerably more rugged than what you just hiked to get here. you can see all the way down to the Rio Grande from here, and this is your landmark. Take a picture of yourself on the basalt with the canyon behind you. The view is tremendous and it makes an excellent place for a picnic lunch. Bring sunscreen and water for this hike.

The cache is a LARGE ammo box. The hike is about 1.5 miles each way, and (aside from the last ~100') is on a good trail. Elevation gain is negligible and it would be a great cache to do on a mountain bike.