Colorado Adventure 1 - Mingo and Arikaree

Have you noticed I’ve been a little quiet lately? TaGeez and I were on an amazing adventure out west!

During our Jasmer trip to Indiana in June, TaGeez and I decided this year is the year for Mingo (GC30), the oldest active geocache in the world. We’ve been meaning to make this pilgrimage for years, but the “3 C’s” got in the way. Deemed safe to travel now by my oncologists, Steve and I decided this was the year.

But do we really want to spend 3 days driving out and driving back? Because as geocachers, it would take more than 3 days each way. Let's save some time and fly!

Well, no sense in flying into Denver and just return so we decided to make an entire adventure out of it! So, in mid September, we headed out.

TaGeez's first plane trip in DECADES

Day 1 - Sunday: Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska

Our first day was all about geocaching: landing at DIA, grabbing our rental car, visiting Mingo and a few other choice caches along the way.

Travel has changed! There were wonderful Adventure Labs and Virtuals at both DTW and DIA! We didn't get to enjoy the Conspiracy Theories as much as we hoped because when we landed in Denver it was chaos and construction! But we were able to grab it! Our first Colorado cache!

DIA Conspiracy Virtual GC88Z0M

After a trying experience at the Budget rental counter (long lines and a rental with a brake failure message), we were on the road, past the giant blue stallion outside DIA, and heading the Kansas & Mingo! 

Kansas Visitor Center

The 3-hour drive from Denver to Mingo was gorgeous! Miles and miles of amber fields reaching to the skyline. The rhythm of the road, my audiobook, and TaGeez's snoring in the passenger seat. It was a gloriously peaceful drive to Mingo. Surprisingly we were so busy enjoying it that we captured no photos of it - but no camera could capture the majesty and sheer immensity of it.  

We made it! And, of course, Signal sporting his new Colorado trackable had to pose first. If you look close, you will see one of our Mingo geocoins, too. Mingo didn't disappoint - it was exactly as described... a fence off a defunct park & ride with nothing for miles around! But we made it and had to pose with it!

Signal's TB is actually a dog tag from Amazon.
The vendor engraved my tracking code on it for free!

When in Mingo and nearby Colby, don't forget to grab the Mingo Virtual (marker missing), Adventure Lab and high-favorited caches.

Mingo Madness Gadget Cache GC8GDEW
almost drove us mad!

Geo-General Store GC5P98P

Grain Bin GCYC7A

You could tell the sun was already starting it's descent, but how could we head to Colorado Springs without detouring for another JASMER gem? Beautiful Arikaree GC31 is a May 2000 cache, too!

 

It's funny about this trip. Each day we had one main goal and one side adventure planned. Funny how the side adventures were in many ways more memorable and enjoyable than the main one. 

Take Arikaree, for instance. Located 1.5 hours northwest of Mingo and just a few miles south of the Nebraska border. Take I-70 to a scenic road, which turned into a sketchy dirt road the further north you go. Before you reach Arikaree (we still have no idea how to pronounce this), you must pass through the Arikaree Breaks. Now, I'm not big into Earth Caches, but this place left an impression (literally and figuratively). 

The Arikaree Breaks are a finalist for the 8 Wonders of Kansas because the deep canyons make this a distinct and scenically dramatic part of Kansas! The Arikaree Breaks are a rugged landscape of canyons that have formed in a type of windblown silt called loess. [Kansas Sampler]

The Arikaree Breaks are located on the extreme northern edge of Cheyenne County just a few miles east from the Land & Sky Scenic Byway. The stunning views of the gullies and rock formations are comprised of loess rocks which are a mixture of wind deposits from sand, silt, and clay. The breaks are 36 miles long and approximately two to three miles wide but mostly reside on private land. [Kansas Tourism]

Again, no camera could do this place justice.

Arikaree Breaks GC2RNXB

Arikaree GC31

We spent a lot of time appreciating Arikaree, but the sun is setting and Nebraska is just a few miles north. We had to take the opportunity to grab another state souvenir.

Nebraska Keeper of the Cache

Texas Trail Canyon Cache GC1X9DZ

Ok, cacti is a thing? I almost stepped on it!

Now the sun is truly kissing the horizon, and we still have HOURS of driving to Colorado Springs. Although beautiful, we had several opportunities to test our bravery. Try driving for hours, in the dark, along unfamiliar country roads with NO houses in between in a strange rental car. Bumps! Animal eyes flashing in the headlights. Miles and miles and miles of emptiness and darkness with almost no phone connectivity. 

After 3 hours in the air and 12 hours on the road, we pulled into Colorado Springs in the darkness. Little did we know what morning had in store for us!

3 state souvenirs!

Important Takeaways from Today's Travels

1. Use all the Delta app features - saved our parking space, check-in for flights, track your gate.
2. Make sure you have paper backups and save files offline for when data connectivity is an issue.
3. The TSA Precheck fee (2023 = $78) was so worth the money! While others grumbled in the long DTW security lines we breezed through the Precheck line - beginning to end - less than 5 minutes. No taking off shoes or turning on laptops either.
4. If you are a member of Budget Fast Break, remember that before you stand in long lines for an hour. Luckily, we scored an amazing Ford Edge with a giant navigation screen.
5. Data connectivity is iffy in the mountains and the plains. So glad we packed our Garmin car GPS, especially driving those backroads from Nebraska to Colorado Springs!