Virgina Dale Cache
by arlan1

Found by Florian on 4/3/2001

Geocaching.com detail page


I live in Palm Springs and took the back way up into the Joshua Tree Nat Park via Berdoo Canyon. This alone would have been a great day trip. Drove up through 29 Palms then out toward the Dale mining district. Got to the cache about noon. Found the main cache without any trouble. Were some mouse dropping on the lid and a few mouse bites around the edges. (Or maybe packrat.) What a nice spot and cache. Saw a big old gopher snake too. Searched an hour (or more) for the satellite coin. Saw lots of spent cartridges but no coin. (Shooters like this place!) Finally gave up looking. Sigh. Took the 1923 dollar and left a seashell i found in Australia last summer and a little box of polished stones. Wrote in the log book and re-hid the cache. Is a good hiding place. (Was a bit worried reaching under the boulder after seeing the snake!) On the way back to my truck walked along the ridge NW of cache one more time. Guess what? I found the satellite 1883 silver dollar!!! I was ecstatic! Wow! Was great. It was farther from the cache than where i was searching before. Went back to the main cache and made another log entry that i'd found satellite. What i did was put the 1923 silver dollar in the rock slot the 1883 dollar was hiding in and kept the 1883 for myself. Is my favorite cache find. After i left the site i continued south on the Gold Crown road and out the Cottonwood entrance to Interstate 10 and back home. I'd think you could drive to this cache without four wheel drive if you're careful. (From the north, NOT from the south.) Placed a "gilacache" on the way.


picture 1
The cache site from a bit away. Looking south-east.


picture 2
The cache in its hiding place. The hat is mine.


picture 3
The cache itself with both coins. I left the seashell (from Australia) and the little box of polished rocks.


picture 4
Both original coins. 1883 on the left and 1928 on the right.


picture 5
The nice gopher snake i found before i found the cache.


Visit Geocaching.com for more info!

Florian's Geocaching Page

Stargazer Home