Difficulty: 4    Terrain: 4

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Every year I volunteer at a camp "Arizona Camp Sunrise" sponsored by the American Cancer Society.  It is a camp for children who have or have had cancer and also their siblings too.  Check out their web site for more info.  Each year the counselors have to come up with a class to teach so this year I decided to teach a Geocaching / Orienteering class.  First week we focused more on old fashion compass work and map reading, only one day I taught them about GPS and Geocaching.  I set up a sample cache on the property and the group went and found it.  After that the few that wanted more we took them hunting for my Box Canyon cache which was near by.  They loved it!!!  So the second week I decided we would focus more on Geocaching.

Second week there was only one kid in the class so we saw this as an opportunity to really get into some serious caching.  First day we just practiced reading the gps and navigating around camp with it.  Second day we decided to go hide a cache resulting with this cache here.  Third Day we went hunting for a nearby cache in Pine... Pine Trail Head Multi Cache.  We did both legs of the cache and tuckered the kid out so the next couple days we just relaxed and talked about ideas and cool areas for other caches.

The cache is in the same area near the camp, which makes it easy to check on when we're up there at camp.  Since your in the area you could also visit the Box Canyon cache as well... 2 for the price of one!!! :)  You follow highway 260 east out of Payson about 23 miles.  After you pass mile marker 271 and a couple curves later you will see the entrance to the camp on the right side of the road right past that on the left about a 100 ft. is the turn off (N34 18.715 W111 02.964) to the start of the road that leads to the cache area. There is a gate at the entrance to the road which for all the time I have know about it has never been locked.  You may just need to get out and open it.  The road is pretty much all up hill and very rough and rocky.  You need a high clearance vehicle to do this one.  We managed it just fine in Harvey's 2wd Toyota Tacoma.  You could also just park the car there at the entrance and have a nice hike as well.  The distance in is roughly 1.5 miles. Takes about 15-20 mins by vehicle.  Note of caution the road is pretty steep incline in some areas and if it has been raining and is muddy probably not to passable except with a 4 wheel drive or hiking.

We parked at the end of the road (N34 19.708 W111 02.412) but you could probably drive closer if you really wanted to.  The cache is an old mined out area.  Not sure exactly what the used to mine here probably the stone as well as some other minerals.  Some of the rocks have rust on the sides of them so maybe some iron or such.  If any one has any more info about the mine area send me an email let me know.  If you explore around the piles of left over stone you can find some cool stuff from the old mining days.

Here are some to start you off.

N34 19.638 W111 02.410 - Old blasting or core sample holes through rocks.
N34 19.607 W111 02.412 - Some old mining cart rails.

If you find any other interesting things email me or note them in the log so I can add them to the site for others to enjoy.

The cache is a small ammo box, with the name of the cache on it.  It is located near the edge of one of the rock piles underneath a couple leaning rocks that create a natural little storage space.  We placed a few rocks in front of it so it would not be easily seen from the north side so the south side is pretty much open kind of hidden in the shadows from the rock above it.  We did place one rock to kind of block it from the south but the area around it is open to see in.  Look at the cache pics for better understanding.  If you do not want to be disappointed and miss finding the cache it might be a good idea to print out the cache spoiler pics or look at them before you go.  Hopefully it is not hidden as hard as my Fremont Saddle cache was, but I want to make sure it wasn't found by accident either.  There is some cool stuff in the cache, mostly wearable items that come in handy at camp!

Have fun!!!