Volcanoes - 1, lionsmane - 0

After going out last Saturday to find a letterbox I realized how much I missed it. Unfortunately, in New Mexico there aren't that many letterboxes that I need to find and most of the ones are further than a day trip away and aren't feasible for me right now. So I decided this morning I would try to go out and find a letterbox that was closer and could be done in a day. My choices were - one at Heron Lake, one in Los Alamos and two (possibly three) in Albuquerque. I decided to try the ones in Albuquerque. So I got all my letterboxing things together and grabbed the clues. On my way out the door I realized that I had printed these clues before the holidays and didn't have a chance to get to them then. So I went back to my computer and checked that the clues hadn't changed since I printed them. Everything was good so I headed out.

I arrived at the Volcanoes Day Use Area of the Petroglyph National Monument and parked the car. I was a little concerned about finding this box because when I left home I did not understand the clues at all and I hoped that when I arrived at the area if would all fall into place. So I sat at a picnic table near the parking area and read the clues and tried to decipher things - the only thing I could make out was that I needed to head to the south cone. So I headed up to the cone but before climbing to the top I read the clues again, I was even more confused. I couldn't tell if I needed to be at the top or if the box was hidden at its base. The first part of the clue read south cone north middle at base top east north rim side. I didn't know if I needed to be on the north side of the east side or at the top or at the bottom. So I gave it a try and started to follow the clues. Nothing worked - the last part of the clues talked about a cave and a juniper and tallest point. I went to the tallest point of the cone and looked around - no cave and no juniper. I never did find a cave or a juniper. So I decided to find a spot to sit and rest and think about the clues. I still had no idea what to do. So I ended up just walking all over the cone looking for anything that made sense. After about an hour and a half I gave up. Not sure what I was doing wrong but I was very confused - and it was appropriate that the last word on the clue was confusion.

I then spent another hour walking around the other cones before heading back to the parking lot and my car. My original plan for the day was to look for this box and then head in to Albuquerque and find another box in town. As I left the Volcanoes I decided that this letterboxing day wasn't working out so I just headed home. Maybe sometime later I will give these clues another try but it won't be too soon.