Back to the Farmington Area

Last week I spent three days letterboxing in the Farmignton area and today I am back to get some more boxes. I am taking advantage of the fact that there is an event on Saturday - I just have added some days so that I can make a dent in the list of boxes in the area. So this morning I left Santa Fe kind of early because my plan was to drive to Navajo Lake State Park and get the boxes there - I had clues for three series (one series of six and two series of three) and then some individual clues as well, for a total of 16 boxes.

San Juan River

I didn't make any stops along the way and I arrived at the park around 9:45am. I entered the park from Aztec on NM173 and made my first stop at Cottonwood Day Use Area. Here I looked for SunnyDelight's Animals of Navajo Lake State Park: Cottonwood Campground and C4's Navajo Lake Fish. Both series were hidden along the same trail and I followed the clues finding boxes from both series as I made my way along the trail. The trail is nice as it follows the San Juan River. There were several people out fishing along the bank as I took my walk. I probably walked about a mile and a half total looking for the boxes. I ended up finding only five of the six boxes - I searched for a while for a box and couldn't find it so I moved on and when I made my way back I tried again and still had on luck. So I made my way back to the car and headed back to NM173 and then to NM511 and made my way to the dam. At the beginning of the dam was a parking area where I stopped to find the first box of a six box series by Sunny Delight - Animals of Navajo Lake State Park: Pine River Campground. After finding this box, stamping in and then replacing it I continued onto the dam and stopped at a pullout to check on a box I have there. A couple of years ago I got a couple of note that the box was missing. So I had recarved the stamp and made a new box to hide.

Navajo Lake

When I parked in the pullout I followed the clues I had on AQ and they took me right to the box. I was so happy to see the box was still there. So I decided to tweak my clues a little and hopefully no one else will have a problem. I continued on my drive and headed for the marina and campground area. There is an historical marker at the entrance to these areas and I stopped here and found kingbee's Navajo Lake Pine River. I found it easily and quickly stamped in and the continued on. I stopped at the Visitor Center first and got a map of the park and found a box in the parking lot - C4's Bears: Care Bear. Then I went to the marina and parked at the upper level and found C4's On the Lake. From here I entered the campground area. I stopped at the Main Campground where I looked for two boxes from the Animals series - I only found one, I had a little trouble with the clues but I did search and never found the box. Next I moved on to the Pinon Loop Campground and found another Animal series and C4's Bears: Smokey. Then I went to the Cedar Loop Campground and found an Animal series box and finally ended at the Juniper Loop Campground for the last box in the Animal series. Now it was time to head to Farmington.

I had planned to stop for three boxes at the Aztec Sports Complex but when I arrived in that area I was starving - I hadn't eaten all day. So I headed through Aztec and on to Famington where I stopped for a bite to eat. After eating I realized I was really tired and so I headed to the hotel to check in. I relaxed for a bit and then logged things in and finally have written this blog post. Not sure what I am doing tomorrow but I am sure I will figure it out.