St. George West Black Ridge (N. of Devil's Saddle)
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Difficulty:
-
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Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
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This cache is hidden beneath a large boulder on the eastern side of
St. George's West Black Ridge, north of Devil's Saddle. While the
hike is short (less than a quarter of a mile), it gets steep in
spots (we climbed 250 feet from where we were parked), where we had
to scramble over large basalt boulders.
If you are familiar with St. George, then you know that the West
Black Ridge is one of the most well-known geographic features. It's
the hill with the St. George Municipal Airport atop the southern,
lower section, the hill sporting the big, white "D" on the eastern
face, overlooking St. George's central valley. From below, if you
follow the hilltop with your eye from south to north, you will
notice that near the northern end, the hill dips down like a
saddle, then climbs back up again, almost like a saddle horn. This
saddle is known as Devil's Saddle. This cache is on that
northernmost peak, north of Devil's Saddle. (Can a hill have a
peak, or is that reserved solely for mountains?).
What's nice about this cache is that it doesn't require any 4-wheel
drive or high clearance vehicle to reach. Nearly anyone in St.
George can drive to within a quarter of a mile or less of the cache
site to make the short but steep hike to the top. From where we
(AlAndaluz and I) parked and hiked, we climbed 250 feet over the
course of our quarter-mile hike, scrambling over the black basalt
boulders that pepper the hillside.
The top of this saddle-horn peak is relatively flat. The cache was
originally hidden on the northwestern edge, but was later
discovered and vandalized. On Friday, 22 March 2003, the cache was
replaced, this time just off the summit on the eastern edge.
Hopefully the new cache site will go undiscovered by the many
hikers, kids, and other curious visitors who aren't specifically
looking for the cache. It's well concealed in a fissure within a
very large black boulder.
The best way to extract the small cache container (smaller than the
original ammo box, now a wide mouthed half-gallon plastic
container) is from underneath. On the lowest side of the boulder,
one can reach beneath the cracked boulder(s), removing the rocks
stacked there to conceal the cache from casual hikers and curious
kids as necessary to reach the container. I don't recommend trying
to extract it from above, removing the rocks wedged in the crack
above it.
We took several separate G.P.S. coordinate readings of the cache
site and averaged them together, so I hope that the provided
coordinates should take you to within 10-30 feet of the cache. I
have uploaded several "cheat" photos showing the rocks in which the
cache is hidden.
Since there are so many fissures, nooks, crannies, and other hiding
spots where a cache should reside, I've rated this cache a "3" on
the overall difficulty scale. Additionally, the cache container has
been well concealed from sight to avoid rediscovery. Please hide it
carefully when you are finished, so that this cache isn't
vandalized again. Because of the steep climb (short though it may
be), it warrants a "3" on the terrain difficulty scale.
Like so very many of the caches in this area, this site affords a
stunning view of the central St. George valley to the east, the red
cliffs of St. George's Red Hill, as well as an excellent view of
Green Valley to the west, Ivins Red Mountain, and even the white
sandstone north and east of Snow Canyon.
The cache container was originally a large green ammo box. We
replaced it with a much smaller (and more easily concealed) clear
plastic half-gallon container with a white lid. So bring something
that will fit through the wide-mouthed container opening, and that
won't take up too much of the limited space inside. Don't expect to
catch sight of the container without searching for it, perhaps even
having to remove some small rocks concealing it before catching a
glimpse of the container.
Please, when you do find it, make sure it is at least equally well
hidden. So many kids play on this hill, exploring the nooks and
crannies that hiding it well is absolutely essential. And please
don't leave any obvious signs that something is hidden if possible.
Likewise, please don't give the cache site away with hints or
markers.
I hope you enjoy the find!
-Astounding (with AlAndaluz originally, and with Percible when
hiding it anew in 2003) St. George, Utah
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Vs lbh jnag gb purng, ybbx ng gur "purng" cvpgherf V'ir hcybnqrq.