A day hike or rugged drive to the Glorieta Baldy Fire Lookout.
The Glorieta Baldy Fire Lookout is a steel tower with a 14' by 14' wooden cab at the top. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. The tower, which was built in 1940, sits on the top of Glorieta Baldy peak at an elevation of 10,199 feet. The tower is not currently active for firewatching.
To get to the lookout by driving or by ATV, exit from I-25 onto State Hwy 50. Turn off Hwy 50 onto County Road 63A (La Cueva Rd) and travel about 2 miles to the National Forest gate. The road changes to NF 375 at this point. The distance from the gate to the tower is about 8 miles. The road starts to get rough past the gate and trying to go beyond the gate in the family sedan is not advised. Most SUVs will not have a problem with the first four miles past the gate, but at that point, the road becomes very rugged and only high clearance 4WD vehicles and ATVs will be able to negotiate it. After a rain, the road can get very muddy and even 4WD vehicles may have problems. If in doubt, park and hike the next 3-4 miles. If hiking, another alternate is to start at the Glorieta Confernce Center and hike on the Glorieta Baldy Trail for about 5 miles to the top.
UPDATE 10/08/17: The road has recently been regraded. Though still rough, it should be negotiable for most SUV vechicles with high clearance.
The cache is a regular sized container about 200 feet from the tower. There is an unactivated personal geocoin as a ftf prize. There is an old picnic area on the forest road about 500 feet before the tower. The picnic tables are still there but are almost hidden by the brush and trees.
Lookout caches have always been our favorites, so much so that we've completed Fire Lookout Challenges in both Washington State and Oregon. We are currently working on completing one in Idaho as well. Since moving to NM recently, we realized that there weren't too many of these type of hides here, so this is a start. We're hoping to encourage other cachers to place caches at active or former lookouts sites for us and others to find. They rarely disappoint. The drives or hikes can sometimes be challenging, but you are often rewarded with beautiful views, rich history and perhaps a friendly conversation with a dedicated fire watcher! If you are interested in finding some of these lookout sites, here is a link to the National Registry of NM Lookouts. Enjoy!
Congratulations to retrekker for the FTF! 