Photo Post for Creepy Caches # 1

There are so many neat cemetery, creepy, spooky, scary and just plain ole' neat caches that I really want to show some of the photos.  Lots of these caches have very little in the way of stories behind them but because of the creativity of the maker or the location, the photos are all that is required to enjoy them.

Take a look at El Diablo's Treasure, located just west of Tombstone Arizona.  From the looks of this cache, it really could fit in at Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard.

The not so lucky, last geocacher

 What brave soul these are - to do this cache at night

I don't know but this sort of looks like the beginning 

of a great friendship

Must have been something contagious that I 

managed NOT to catch

Even Mother Nature supplied a bit of creepiness for some cachers

GCKPPC - El Diablo's Treasure has been enjoyed by almost 400 cachers and only one of those didn't get a smiley.  From all the post I have read, it is by far one of the favs in southern Arizona.  Thanks

Team Piggin Out, for this amazing cache.

Halloween and Cemetery Caches - YES !

To be real honest, I am not too sure how I feel about geocaching in cemeteries.  I will do it and I know some others who do.  We all do it with respect and do not disturb anybody or any thing.  I have been told I can be a little strange at times.  That does not bother me.  So when I tell you that I just feel like I am politely visiting the homes of the deceased when I am in a graveyard, maybe you will cut me some slack.  That being said, let me share some of the fun cemetery caches I have found.

First off, I am surprised how many cemetery caches exist in the Northeastern states.  This sort of gives me the heebie-jeebies because of the amount of fog that exist in these areas.  Fog, creepy animal noises, graves, limbs of trees catching your hair, twigs snapping under your feet, weeds tickling your leg - goose bumps so big they hurt - get the picture?  But what better way to go caching when you are in a brave or daring mood.

This may not be an actual graveyard cache, but it does deserve an honorable mention here.  It was one of my first finds and there is no way to know that this wasn't a real grave site at one point.  Right?  This is El Diablo's Treasure, GCKPPC, located on the outskirts of Tombstone, Arizona. 

   Who ever said that Tombstone is the "Town Too Tough To Die" ?

The only actual cemetery cache I have done is in Springerville, Arizona, in this tiny fenced in area that sits on a hill, almost in the middle of a neighborhood.  I don't mind sharing the pic since it really is a simple find and I don't consider it a 'spoiler' or any sort.  This cache, GC2QXJB, is appropriately named R.I.P..

So that one is not scary, but we did it during the light of day.  So lets see what we can find in the southwest.

 Not too far from Tombstone is the town of Sierra Vista, best known for the Fort Huachuca Army Base and Ramsey Canyon Preserve which is considered the Hummingbird Capitol of the United States.  This is also the area that the #1 Arizona Cemetery Challenge begins.  This is how GC33FXE goes -

The challenge:
1) You must find 20 caches in cemeteries.
2) They must all be within the state of Arizona.
3) The geocaches in question could have been found at any time (i.e. they do not have to be found after the date this cache was activated).
4) Multi's, puzzles and virtuals count as long as at least one leg is a visit to a cemetery- just list which cemetery on your bookmark.
5) Lone graves also count for this challenge, ie. GC28QC5 Arizona Pioneer.

 

 In the San Francisco Bay area, the Mt. Hope Cemetery has a multi-cache that sound fun and not so difficult that you couldn't enjoy a bit of wondering and reading of the stories on grave markers.  Simply called Mt. Hope Cemetery, GCPW5Y is a four part cache with, what looks to be, a lot of history involved.  I believe you will could have access during the evening hours making this a perfect Halloween season experience.  Especially with the 'odd' selection of decorations through out the cemetery.

 This cemetery cache in New Mexico look very inviting to me and I am loving the name, Spirit of Garfield.  First thought - I just love that silly cartoon cat.  Reality - this graveyard is located on the road to  Garfield, New Mexico.  This unique village is a simple, no nonsense community with a matching graveyard.  No pretty lawns, no comfortable benches and no fancy buildings, just a desert home for those who have passed. 

There's an old section

 






and a new section -
not much different      




and all open, day or night, to visit spirits and find this cache. 

And just one more for now, from the Western United States.  This one is not too far from me.  The Evergreen's Stories, GCGAG3, is a multi-cache with a total of 11 steps.  Yep - it's gonna take a while.  The terrain is not difficult but there will be some walking.  The big old trees are beautiful and will provide protection from the hot summer sun.  This large cemetery was built in 1907, in an area that was on the out skirts of town, at that time.  There's a variety of patrons to visit,  Anglo, Mexican, Chinese, poor laborers, well know politicians, gunfighters, gangsters, and even the old woman who lived next door and made those wonderful pies during the holidays.  So your biggest problem may be staying on track and not wanting to visit every grave. 

 

I will be researching caches in the graveyards in the Eastern U.S. for my next post about spirited geocaches.  Check back soon to see what I find. 

The town too tough to die

     Tombstone Arizona motto is "The town too tough to die".  From what I can see it could also be called the "The town full of great caches".

     One of my early cache trips with SchnauzerQueen was to Tombstone in search of one cache in particular,  El Diablo's Treasure.  SchnauzerQueen has caching friends that live in the area.  One of whom is Sanruft, the man who got this whole thing started for her and then me.  Much thanks to Sanruft for getting us off our butts and out there caching.  

    Here is the scoop about El Diablo's Treasure:
It is located just west of the town of Tombstone in a beautiful desert area.  It is listed as a difficulty of 1 1/2 and the terrain 1 1/2 also.  I found it to be a nice little hike and was glad that I forfeited the usual flip flops for tennies.  It's a large cache and the owner has lived up to the reputation of the town old west where gunfighter ran crazy and the ghost still remain.  So beware if you are weak at heart.  From where we parked we had an easy little hike thru desert bushes and some really neat wash areas.  I especially like the washes since you can find all kinds of signs of the wild life.

     When this cache was originally placed there were a few people that thought this cache was symbolic of something evil.  And ya know it only take a few to make something out of nothing. The cache was nick named The Happy Halloween Cache to pacify those few. Originally hidden in October of 2004 makes the nick name a good one.  
     
     There have been 348 logged visits in the past 7 years and the post from the finders are great.  Here are a couple of them -

 Found it

01/03/2012

By far our favorite in the Tombstone area.Thanks for the extra effort on this one.

 Found it

10/12/2011

One of the best ones yet, w/ serial70. Very interesting at night

 Found it

01/29/2012

#617 Noon: The sun was directly overhead when we parked the covered wagon & journeyed on foot the last few yards to the site. Buzzards circled in the distance hoping for one or two more souls to become victims to El Diablo's curse. As we opened the cache, a slight breeze blew across our faces! El Diablo's odor flared our nostrils and wrinkled our faces in agonizing grimaces! We signed the log & left a kaleidoscope, taking Hoher Stiefel boot TB. Suddenly, the odor vanished & the buzzards soared away into the distance. We walked back to the wagon and after giving our horses a sugar cube, we made our way toward the next cache.

As you can see, people just love this cache.  And oh that SchnauzerQueen - she falls for the most interesting guys!

     I contacted the owner of El Diablo's Treasure and asked him how he came up with this idea.  This is how he responded -

Actually, we teamed up with friends of ours that live there in Tombstone. We were sitting around having a few cocktails one evening about doing unusual Caches, and we all giggled about doing some really elaborate Caches that would be strange and unusual in the desert. We were fairly close to Halloween, so we thought it would be awesome to do a theme that resembles Halloween. We were honestly going to remove it after Halloween, but it became so popular, we decided to leave it where it lies today. There has been a newspaper article written about it in one of the Tombstone papers, due to someone hiking one day and thought it was a Satanic Ritual of some sort. The Sheriff Department and all kinds of folks went to see it and discovered it to be what we know and love as a Geo Cache. . . . 
 

      Well - this is my favorite cache to date.  There are more in the area that I will post about over the next couple of weeks.  Like I said - Tombstone is a great place to eat, drink, sight see and cache.  And just out of town to the east there is another great find, if you like oddities.  Check it out.

      Just to let you know -  Tombstone Boothill Graveyard does not support Geocaching at this time.  There are no caches hidden there and the manager does say that if he hears or finds a cache there, it will be tossed out.  Too bad since it would be such a great place to play.