19-Nov-2014 -- Traveling west from 38N 108W, I took 145 to 141 through the intriguingly named Disappointment Valley until the turnoff to Slick Rock on CR S8, which turns into CR Q1 once in BLM land. Previous visitors warned about this road, but perhaps recent maintenance had been done because I found it very level and manageable, even for a skilled driver of a 2WD vehicle I would hazard. The views were also magnificent. This is still an active radium mining area, which could be a reason for the state of the road.

When the distance to the confluence from CR Q1 was minimized at just over a half mile, I braked and realized that there was a two-track trail heading south-southwest in just the direction I needed to go! The Jeep got me to within 0.27 mile before deep ruts forced me to park here at 2:45pm with a temperature of 37°F. I continued to walk along this path before ducking into the woods with about 500 feet remaining.

I couldn’t remember if there would be a geocache at this confluence or not, but with its ease of access I suspected there would. Sure enough, upon arriving in the general area of the site a quick ground scan turned up a perfect little cairn in a grove of scrubby trees. Lifting the top two rocks revealed the geocache, recently replaced with a fresh logbook. I zeroed out with ease, took photos, logged my visit in the cache, and then made my way back out. I got slightly turned around having forgotten to set a waypoint to where I had parked, but this was quickly rectified due to the outstanding trail network in this area. I arrived back at the car at 3:20pm, 35 minutes after starting. I followed CR Q1 west this time into Utah, hitting a maintained county road heading south to 491 and subsequently into Cortez, where I would stay the night in advance of attempting 37N 109W (very near Four Corners) the next morning.