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Sentinel Peak LbNA #12690

Owner:Azroadie Contact
Plant date:Dec 17, 2004
Location:
City:Tucson
County:Pima
State:Arizona
Boxes:1
Found by: Heyford
Last found:Dec 12, 2020
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Last edited:Jan 21, 2016
Trail difficulty: moderate -- very rocky up hill trail with short steep rock scramble at end.
Distance: about 1 mile round trip.
Stamp hand-carved.
Status: alive and well on January 17, 2016

The box is in Sentinel Peak Park (aka “A” Mountain) on the west side of Tucson. From I-10 take exit 258 and go west on Congress Street for about 0.7 miles. Turn left (south) on Cuesta Avenue and follow it as it curves right and becomes Sentinel Peak Road. Continue to the highest part of the park, driving around the peak and past the big “A”. Park in the lot in the saddle just west of the peak. This will give you a great view of the Tucson basin.

(Or, there is now a paved pullout at the intersection where the road splits and becomes one way to go around the hill. You can park there if you want a shorter walk. The trail starts just across the road).

From the lot, walk north down to the paved road and turn left (west) and walk down the road to the intersection. Continue straight, passing in front of the "Do Not Enter" sign and the park rules sign, and cross the entrance road to the other side. On the southwest edge of the road is a small flat graded area. From there, walk up the old “Sentinel Ridge Trail” (now called the Gilbert Escandon Jimenez Trail) which starts off at about 290 degrees (from mag. north). You will go up some switchbacks and soon come to a high point on the trail on the north side of a small hill. The trail will then go down and curve to the left to a small saddle. Just before the trail makes a significant turn to the right (in the saddle) you will see a small social/unofficial trail going off to the left at about 120 degrees (from mag. north). Follow this side trail for about 28 steps as it curves around to the first Saguaro Cactus which is moderate in size with a small "bud" arm on its back side. From this Saguaro go at about 80 degrees (from mag. north) for about 50 steps up the rocky slope to a small rock outcrop nestled amongst 3 moderate size Cholla Cactus. The box is on the east side of the large rock under a pile of rocks and a dead Cholla branch. Be alert for snakes and scorpions!

Please please be sure the contents are triple ziplocked when you put them back in the box (i.e. the stamp is in a ziploc, the book is in a ziploc, and the two are in the larger ziploc bag and all of that is in another large ziploc) and put all of it INSIDE the box. Please rehide the box well under rocks and plant debris so that it can not be seen from any direction.

Enjoy the view of the greater Tucson basin. To the far north are the Tortolita Mountains; the northeast are the Santa Catalina Mountains; the far south are the Santa Rita Mountains; and the west are the Tucson Mountains.

Contact me if the box needs attention:

http://nostalgia.esmartkid.com/azroadie.html

This box is in my “I-10 Series”. The other boxes in the series are: "Gold Nugget [AZ]", "Picacho Cactus [AZ]", "Picacho Peak [AZ]", "Rio Santa Cruz [AZ]", "The Cercidium [AZ]", "What Is The Thing? [AZ]", "Deming [NM]", and "Lordsburg [NM]".

Please record your find at www.letterboxing.org/ or at www.atlasquest.com/ .

If you live in Arizona or New Mexico or have an interest in letterboxes in those states, you are invited to join the Letterboxing Southwest Discussion Group. Go here to join: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LetterboxingSouthwest/ .