I believe there is a certain beauty in darkness, and often find a kind of peace in a creepy place that is hard to find elsewhere. So, I have a great appreciation for geocaches with a goth aesthetic. Recently, I was in north Escondido, CA with an hour or so to spare and found not one, but two really cool (ie, morbid) caches both by GRNZOOM. The first was “Belinda’s Valentine (RIP Charlie)” (GC6B71B). Located near a sharp bend on a lonely stretch of Mesa Rock Road, ground zero offered a convenient place to pull over. My eye was immediately drawn to a weathered memorial attached to a chainlink fence. To most folks, it was a solemn reminder of a life lost late at night, perhaps a speeding car failing to navigate the curve and shattering a family. For me, it seemed a likely place to begin my search, and I had the cache in hand moments later. It wasn’t the first time I have seen this type of camo used for a geocache, but I think it is awesome. Dark, creepy, and not likely to be disturbed by non-geocachers.
You may have noticed from the picture that I also discovered something else at GZ that I had been seeking. The superbloom! The hill behind the cache was ablaze with orange and red flowers, and the density gave the area an almost painted look from a distance. I appreciated the way Nature seemed to pay tribute to the faux memorial. Later, I discovered a real memorial under the nearby overpass which made it even more poignant.
I was happy to have found a good spot to enjoy the flowers and to have found a creepy cache, but I was pleasantly surprised to find another hair-raising spot nearby. This geocache, “Happy Halloween: Bat Boy” (GC7YT1A) took spooky to a whole different level. Again, GZ had a convenient place to pull over and I was searching in an area thick with brush and branches. Runoff from the winter rains had left a deep rut connecting the roadway to a seasonal creek down the embankment. A large tree near there certainly seemed like a good place for a Halloween cache, but my GPS had me closer to the road. Searching the lower branches and bushes, as well as the ground for some evidence of a log or geopile, I wound up circling around my indicated GZ and ended up on a small rise. This placed my eye-level deeper into the foliage and when I happened to glance up, my heart nearly stopped. I can only imagine how loud I would have screamed if I had been night caching and happened to catch this sight in the beam of my flashlight. Signing the log and returning to my car, I had to chuckle to myself. Was I admiring the creepy creativity that went into these awesome (and often favorited) hides? Or was I laughing at my own disturbing appreciation of something so morbid?
