Signal Butte

08/13/2018 By allenmabry
3:00 PM We are here from Dallas for our typical August vacation in Divide in order to skip the Texas heat for a couple of weeks.

This morning we did the walking tour of the Victor Mines virtual cache.

Then we headed here for this rare D/T combination. We had a fairly pleasant 30 minute hike up to the top and I spotted the benchmark. I took a 360 degree panorama photo and a few others. The haze from the forest fires did spoil a great view on an an otherwise perfect day.

Then I tried to spot the best path over to the cache. The west side looked pretty good and chalky, but the ledges were narrow. I opted to head down the east side and swing around to the south. My wife is very careful with her footing on descent and I tease her that she walks faster up hill than down...

It took awhile, but we made it to the area. I regained some elevation and made the grab. I had to laugh at the cache contents. My wife is a big fan of the James Bond movies and we own all but the last few - mostly on VHS tape!

We had a relatively uneventful descent to the bottom and walked back to the parking area. (The forest service roads were in surprisingly good shape and my Forester had no problem getting to the parking area.)

I signed the log. Thanks, chefstern, for the cache. This one was "memorable" so I am adding a favorite point.

GeoWoodstock XVII
Ft. Worth, TX
May 25, 2019 10:00AM - 5:00PM
https://coord.info/GC7NBWQ

It is on the way to Giga status, so please log a "will attend" if you are coming.

GC138EK 2018-08-13

08/20/2017 By YamaGypsy
Last cache of the day. Good timing, since we started seeing storm clouds roll in. Had a great time exploring the area with RPieperco. Sl, thanks!

08/20/2017 By RPieperCO
Thanks for the cache! Was out this way to do a little hike up Signal Butte and to grab a few caches along the way the kiddo's. We had a blast on the back roads! After making the summit headed down to this one. Lots of fun bushwhacking and rock jumping all the way down. Found the cache quickly once at GZ. I'm glad it was where I hoped because I couldn't go any further "out"! Signed log and snapped a couple pictures. Great location! Thanks for placing this one for us all to enjoy!

12/15/2015 By Denali41
icezebra11 and I shared two wonderful days of cache-finding in the Woodland Park area and the mountains south of Pikes Peak. We also came to Signal Butte, a place neither of had visited before, specifically to find this great chefstern cache. Soon after returning from the trip, Denali50 and I left on a 1-month road trip. Immediately after getting home from it, I had a series of surgeries to recondition my body for future hikes and climbs. I'm now finally out of an immobilizer and am able to log past finds, including this one.

iezebra11 provides some description of our activities at Signal Butte. Getting to this cache from above turned out to be an interesting challenge, as I've found to be the case with some other chefstern caches I've found in the past and that I cherish. Thanks for another grand experience!

09/08/2015 By icezebra11
My friend Denali41 and I completed a fun two day roadtrip to the Woodland Park, Cripple Creek, and Gold Camp Rd areas focused on finding a lot of really wonderful challenge caches and we also scored some other great caches along the way.

After finding a number or really nice caches just NE of Woodland Park we headed toward Signal Butte. This cache was particularly attractive to us as it has a very enticing T rating and neither of us had been to the Butte. We reached the parking area and headed up the trail to the summit. There we enjoyed the beautiful vistas, particularly of Pikes Peak. Shot a photo of the benchmark and then headed down toward the cache. It took some effort to get to ground zero and we made a small error in going to low and then having to gain back the elevation. But we eventually made it to the right spot and found the container safe in its hiding spot. It should be noted that we did not find cache-faerie's signature in the log and it does not appear to be a legitimate find.

Another great view of Pikes from this location! Thanks chefstern for this great backcountry cache!!!
20150908_174338[1]

06/18/2015 By cache-faerie
What a hike! What a view! TFTC:)

08/19/2014 By jherber
TFTC Big Bear 1 and I have been staring at this cache for several years. I have no idea why I picked today to try it. I called him and he was ready to go. My auto GPS had us going the 'wrong' way from Woodland Park so we ignored it. Then I took County Road 3 over instead of 51 so we took a while to get to the base of Signal Butte. We got the gear and water bottles and headed up the trail. This was a slower climb than what I had expected, but we enjoyed the views as we rested several times going around the back side of the butte. We found the benchmark at the top and enjoyed the view for a while. Then we tried to figure out how to get to the cache. Doc4001 said it was a good trip and not to worry about it. Well for a couple of guys on the other side of 70 this was quite an adventure. After descending more than a hundred feet Big Bear 1 stepped over a downed tree and planted his foot on a branch near the trunk, but it proceeded to break and he lost his balance and rolled about 12 feet down the side of the hill over large rocks and scrub. When he came to a halt he was bleeding from the head, nose, arms, and legs. Lucky for us nothing was broken or cracked and he remained conscious. Once we took care of the leaks we considered our options. Going back up seemed like too much of a climb by then. Going down looked bad, but the cache was along the way. We headed farther down and over toward the cache. After getting to the cache and signing the log we elected to continue down toward the trail west of the parking area. I made it to the car first and drove down the ATV trail to pick up Big Bear 1. Given what I know now I should never have attempted this one. We were exhausted after this trek and got off lucky.

The cache is in great shape after 7 years. The contents are dry and the log looks brand new. A beautiful place for a cache and very well done. I am not sure there is an easy way to it. But I might recommend doing it from the bottom. Either way you have a lot of rock and downed trees to tend with. Thanks for a day of caching.

Big Bear 1 and jherber on Signal Butte

08/19/2014 By Big Bear 1
Out with Jheber looking just for this cache. Great cllimb and great cache. TFTC Sure do not want to try this one again,

06/17/2014 By Dave E
:)

06/01/2013 By co_gps_guy
2nd try is the charm. Enjoyed the first ATV trip of the season to Divide OHV to enjoy the trails and some geocaching. Not sure how my GPS did not get me closer the first time, but now I have tried from the bottom and the top of the Butte. A GREAT view. SL. TFTC.