HELLO FROM DENVER . . .

Denver, Idaho, that is. Tired of rainy weather keeping us housebound, Mike put together a packet of six geocaches and we headed in the direction of Grangeville this morning. It turned out to be a kind of historical tour of Idaho County. Our first stop was the Denver Cemetery – a lovely spot with great views of the vast Camas Prairie. [The first photo shows Grangeville in the distant rainy mist.] The cache description reads: "Although hopes ran high that it would prove to be a metropolis to rival its Colorado namesake, it was not to be. Situated in a central location on the prairie, Denver served area farmers and was a convenient stop for those heading across the prairie to the mines. When the railroad bypassed Denver by a few short miles, however, the town's fate was sealed." The cemetery was established in 1898 and is still active and well-maintained.

Our next cache was located in Grangeville near a ball field. "The clue is 'gruff,' so it must be under a bridge," I said. Sure enough – that's where Mike found it, but he didn't understand the clue.
On the edge of town we stopped at another cemetery, Hill Crest Cemetery, a kind of paupers' field, near which the "poor farm" was located. Whether infants or elders, residents of the poor farm were buried here.

We then traveled to Mount Idaho where a cache was hidden in a monument commemorating the site of a fort where many settlers sought safety during the Nez Perce War of 1877. We were surprised to see so many nice homes in the area – some of them large and beautiful.











And the last cache was located at the Weis Rock Shelter on Graves Creek Road, an historic site, where the Nez Perce took shelter in caves. The caves have been backfilled to prevent defacement, so you can't explore them. The area is overgrown with blackberries, but we found they weren't very tasty. Perhaps it's just too soon to pick them. [Photo right -- A boy (er, man) and his dog.]




We drove on down Graves Creek Road to the Pine Bar Recreation Area on the Salmon River where we ate our picnic lunch. At that lower elevation on the river, the temperature was 70 degrees and pleasant. But you can see from this photo that the sky still threatened rain.
On our way back to the farm, we stopped at the town of Nezperce where Mike checked out another Grisham novel. All in all, we covered 140+ miles. KW