Why Cache In The Desert?

[+Alan2]

What about it is so appealing?

[+Oreo Pony]

You're kidding, right?

[+Duncan!]

Spectacular scenery, geocaches, a hidden palm oasis, geocaches, petroglyphs, geocaches, desert sunrises, geocaches, cool geological features, and did I mention geocaches?

 

[+Alan2]

No. I was watching something on TV about this guy who walked the bible. And this show was on his walk through the desert and his exploring the connection of all the great prophets, Moses Jesus Mohammad, who all spent huge amounts of time in the desert. That there was some sought of "connection". So I thought I'd ask the question of cachers. What is it, if anything, that you find that the desert connects you too?

[+Duncan!]

No. I was watching something on TV about this guy who walked the bible. And this show was on his walk through the desert and his exploring the connection of all the great prophets, Moses Jesus Mohammad, who all spent huge amounts of time in the desert. That there was some sought of "connection". So I thought I'd ask the question of cachers. What is it, if anything, that you find that the desert connects you too?

The solitude is appealing to me, guess it gives ya time to think(?). Also, it's timeless, it looked like that a 1000 years ago and hopefully it won't change.

 

D!

[+TFTC]

The solitude is appealing to me, guess it gives ya time to think(?).  Also, it's timeless, it looked like that a 1000 years ago and hopefully it won't change.

 

D!

Maybe you have to live in coastal southern california to appreciate the desert

[+Miragee]

In some ways the desert is friendlier than other environments. You can see for long distances, the air is clear, the vegetation is unique and varied, and in the spring the wildflowers are astonishing.

 

 

That is a picture from Death Valley, one of the most spectacular places anywhere on earth.

 

You might try to find a copy of Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey and read it. Although he wrote more specifically about the red rock country of the Utah desert, he describes the desert's appeal for those who have learned to appreciate its subtle beauty.

[+Thunder-4]

 

This was taken back in April 2005. We rode our motorcycles through Death Valley. It was one of the best trips I've ever been on.

[+Vegas5]

As a 12 year resident of Southern Nevada's mighty Mojave Desert, and a former resident of Southern California, I just have to concur with the previous posts that caching in the desert is lots of fun. Like other kinds of locales, it has its unique opportunities for wildlife viewing, and climatic challenges. Where else can you go to see bighorn sheep, and wild burros guarding the final stage of a multi cache that it took you X hours to get to after cliff climbing, only to find a sidewinder or mojave green rattlesnake near the cache container that was actually hidden in the bottom portion of a yucca plant? Need I say more? Try caching in our southwestern deserts sometime... you'll love it!

[+Colorado Cacher]

Why? Snakes and Scorpions gotta eat also.

[+DaMoores]

I got to stay for a week in StovePipe Wells. In Augest. Free!!!!

[+q22q17]

We did a fair amount of caching in the desert during the summer. Yes, it was over 100 degrees, and we climbed, scrambled, hydrated, fell, but had the best time. The Mojave Desert and the caches along the I-15 from SoCal to state line Nevada are some of the most fun cache experiences we have had as a family.

 

Best parts includ: few muggles, AMMO Box hides, great travel bug opportunities, better SWAG, less FOD, and most importantly, great family bonding experiences.

[+AtoZ]

Remember the salsa commerical where the guy gets his salsa from NYC, LOL. Well you have to let the desert environment grow on you. At first it is just stark and barrian then when you really look the beauty abounds.

cheers

[+Team Geogeeks]

You know this is funny........I'm actually in New York working right now ( I live in the San Diego Area)and seeing as how this string was initiated by a New Yorker makes what I'm going to say even more interesting.

 

I was on a flight from Philladelphia up to Albany a couple of nights ago and I got to talking with the guy in the seat next to me.(he lives in Albany) Mentioned where I was from and that I really enjoy going out to the desert. He made the same comment....

 

what is it about the desert that is so fun?

 

I was so dumbfounded, I couldn't give him a proper response. I wish I could have had my pictures with me.......but the terrain in the desert can be so different in one place vs another and you can be only 2 miles apart.....and the scenery is beautiful! Here's my pic. This is in Ocotillo Wells. I LOVE coming out here. There is so much to do. And it's VERY fun to 4X4 in.

 

[+Alan2]

Thanks for everyone's replies. I'm really fascinated how so many of the great prophets and mystics were so influenced by the desert. It seems to have such powerful effect in connecting one to the "unknown". IS it the bareness, the clear sky with bright stars, the endless horizon, ???? I find that even when I cache in the woods of NY, stopping along the way and feeling the stillness around me connects me to something else as well. I am trying to learn how the desert effects cachers so I can sense that special thing that made a prophet a prophet and a mystic a mystic.

[+Dan-oh]

Yup, nothing interesting out here. Just cactus and rocks...

 

 

 

On the way into GCAFFA - Over The Edge

[+TucsonThompsen]

Tons of reasons:

 

Snakes are valid terrain difficulties too.

A mountain is really a mountain!

Horizon....you can see it.

Wide open skies and tons of GPS signal. I've seen my accuracy to within 4 ft.

When your GPS says you're 10 ft. from the cache....you're 10 feet from the cache.

No silly canopy cover to screw your signal up.

Lack of muggles.

.

.

.

etc. ad nauseum

 

I'm a desert boy stuck in Jersey. Ugh...I miss desert caching. These pine forests are so annoying at times

 

--TT--

Edited January 27, 2006 by TucsonThompsen

[+Team Fatman]

Tons of reasons:

 

Snakes are valid terrain difficulties too.

A mountain is really a mountain!

Horizon....you can see it.

Wide open skies and tons of GPS signal. I've seen my accuracy to within 4 ft.

When your GPS says you're 10 ft. from the cache....you're 10 feet from the cache.

No silly canopy cover to screw your signal up.

Lack of muggles.

.

.

.

etc. ad nauseum

 

I'm a desert boy stuck in Jersey. Ugh...I miss desert caching. These pine forests are so annoying at times

 

--TT--

Plus there's no lightskirts.

[Jake - Team A.I.]

For those of us that live in or near deserts... we have the best sandboxes in our back yards.

[+TV-dude]

I am a desert dweller and I love it because a terrain difficulty of 4 or 5 really IS 4 or 5. I can go out in the dead of winter in shorts and t-shirt and walk up a sweat, see a sunrise or sunset over the mountains, no cell phone, no car horns going off with people giving the one finger salute. It's a great place to just mentally recharge. The only drawback is I really have to focus on where I walk or I take an 80 foot freefall.

[+Chuy!]

...I'm really fascinated how so many of the great prophets and mystics were so influenced by the desert.  It seems to have such powerful effect in connecting one to the "unknown".  IS it the bareness, the clear sky with bright stars, the endless horizon,  ???? ... I am trying to learn how the desert effects cachers so I can sense that special thing that made a prophet a prophet and a mystic a mystic.

 

The desert-prophet thing is overrated. There are thousands of prophets in antiquity. Most that went to the desert went 'cause there was little place else to go.

Sans water, San Diego is a desert!

You may find the desert does not appeal to you; and you'd probably be in the majority!

But it certainly must be experienced first hand.

We have a desert Event coming up; maybe you can make it.

Here is an informative website about desert life in the USA.

[Tahosa and Sons]

I've lived in both NY, AZ, and CO. I just love the North Country of NY, and would never be caught going downstate.

 

As to AZ its just beautiful. Look at my profile, in my picture I got to take #1 grand cache on his first and only hike. And I must say the Superstition Mountains are just awesome. I've been all over them on foot and have found places you would probably just drool over. The Rim Country is just awesome also.

 

Now CO is beautiful in its own realm. Not the dessert but beautiful in a different way, majestic peaks, waterfalls, woods, woods, draws, gulches etc. etc. etc. Rock outcroppings that resemble Sedona AZ in a way.

 

The Desert is so beautiful after a nice quenching rain. More flowers than you could even imagine.

[+ToTheSummit]

I've spent most of my life exploring the deserts of the Southwest. I know Death Valley like the back of my hand (both on-road and off-road areas as well as areas only accessible on foot). I've driven to the most remote parts of the Mohave desert....just to see what was there. I've driven around for days on end, without ever seeing a paved road, in 120+ degree heat, in an old 4X4 truck with no a/c. And more then once I've woken up in the morning with a rattlesnake less then 20 feet from my sleeping bag (luckily I've yet to find one actually sleeping with me ).

 

Maybe its not for everyone, but I can think of no place on Earth more appealing to me then the desert. The beauty, the solitude, the extremes, and the history....I love it all!

[+pdxmarathonman]

 

Maybe its not for everyone, but I can think of no place on Earth more appealing to me then the desert. The beauty, the solitude, the extremes, and the history....I love it all!

When I was living in Phoenix over 25 years ago I could not understand why anyone one would want to spend any time at all in the <expletive deleted> desert. I grew up in the northwest (on the "wet" side of the mountains), and have always loved the solitude of mountains, meadows and forests. It wasn't until I started doing some bicycle touring of the eastern half of Oregon back in the '90s that I developed an appreciation for the desert. I can't say that I am in love with the desert, but I can certainly see why someone might be.

I know that I must not be a huge fan of the desert since the pictures posted earlier in this thread appear as, shall I say: less than scenic

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

No. I was watching something on TV about this guy who walked the bible. And this show was on his walk through the desert and his exploring the connection of all the great prophets, Moses Jesus Mohammad, who all spent huge amounts of time in the desert. That there was some sought of "connection". So I thought I'd ask the question of cachers. What is it, if anything, that you find that the desert connects you too?

 

Alan2, the desert reinforces the 2 rules of life.

 

When you get out in the desert and sit on a ridge overlooking a canyon, you look around and you feel small and insignificant!

 

 

 

A subtle reminder of the rules of life.

 

Rule #1: Don't sweat the small stuff.

Rule #2: It's ALL small stuff. (Especially after spending time wandering in the desert!)

 

John

[+Renegade Knight]

I grew up in the green parts of the Pacific Northwest finally ending up in Alaska. In that time I was used to tree’s, forests, rivers, fishing, boating, camping and all the things fun in outdoor life. The phrase “on Gods Green Earth” was literally true. Then I came to Idaho and hated the land at first.

 

Idaho is high mountain desert and high elevation with lots of sagebrush. The first thing that grows on you is the concept of Big Sky. You don’t know it’s grown on you until you go to a forest and can’t see anything and feel closed in. Then when you hit the big sky’s of the desert you can see forever and you start realizing there is a lot to see. Antelope, Elk, Rivers, Eagles and Hawks… Soon you also realize that while there is a lot of farmers fields there is also a lot of access. Then the variations and small natural miraciles start hitting you. The Buttes there were former volcano’s, the canyon the Snake River cuts through the Basalt lava flows, the springs, hot and cold scattered across the land. Cities of Rock, the Great Rift, good fishing in streams not even wide enough to make you jump to step across, rives that disappear underground… The list goes on.

 

There is a lot to be said for the green hills of home, but when I learned how to see it there is even more to see and do in the desert that I now call home. Besides, I’m also not that far from the mountains and all the forest I care to explore. It’s the best of both worlds. The deserts of Idaho are not the same as the Deserts that the Joshua tree’s claim as home. They are very different and yet once you look around they offer a lot of the same experiences.

 

There is wonder everywhere in the natural world. It's only the urbanites that it's lost on.

[+Renegade Knight]

In all that I forgot to answer the original question.

 

Why cache in the desert? Because it's there.

[+The Leprechauns]

I grew up in the Northeast, and I live in the Northeast. But I love visiting the desert for the open space, freedom and silence. I like the fact that I need to be careful and smart, or risk serious consequences. In Pennsylvania it's hard to travel more than a few miles without hitting a paved road.

 

I like the starkness of the desert's beauty. To some, the desert is plain and boring. Try walking through it and that is when you notice the little flowers, the color variations in the rocks, and the bighorn sheep that you would've missed if you drove by at 70 mph. Geocaching taught me this. I used to go to Vegas to gamble and party. Now the hotel is just base camp for expeditions.

 

Oh, and driving offroad is FUN. And having 5 foot accuracy off of 10 satellites is unheard of in the forests back home.

 

Me in the desert:

 

 

What I climbed to get there:

 

[+Cow Spots]

Quick and simple answer :

 

I live in/near the desert, and people have placed caches out there. Therefore, I must find them. Q.E.D.

 

Long answer :

 

 

Me after a 4200+ vertical gain hike.

 

 

The ruins of a fort from the 1870's.

 

 

Cowspot Jr. finds a Geocache in the desert.

 

 

It's a long way down from on top of Golden Gate Mountain in the Tucson Mountains.

 

That's why we cache in the desert.

[+SKILLET]

Desert Caches are a whole lot better than an urban Micro. You can drive 13 miles cross country just for a Cache in the middle of nowhere. and I mean no where. You couldn't believe the beauty of it, plus if you do it with friends you can't beat it. simple put it's fun. I have property east of San Diego in the desert and we go out every two weeks during desert season. You can't beat it for the fun.

SKILLET

Happy Caching

[bordercrazy]

I live in Tucson, AZ. Where else would I cache at?

 

Really though desert caches are the only ones I go after. Some people enjoy urban micro's I like the varied terrian, great views and solitude the desert has to offer.