Monterey sits on the slope of a hill, with a blue bay below it and with a forest of tall dark pine trees at its back. The lower parts of the town are inhabited by Americans, Italians, catchers and canners of fish. But on the hill where the forest and the town intermingle, where the streets are innocent of asphalt and the corners free of street lights, the old inhabitants of Monterey are embattled as the Ancient Britons are embattled in Wales. These are the paisanos. - John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat
This pocket park doesn't show up on many maps and is thus a secret delight of locals (especially dog walkers and kids cutting school), and you may have difficulty finding the right approach to get in. Mysterious phenomena and artifacts -- natural, human-made, and perhaps supernatural -- await you at the end of this short walk to the cache.
CAUTION: if you come in from the wrong side, GO BACK. It's a steep drop-off into the quarry. If you take the correct approach from the street, it's an easy walk with a very slight rise to an obvious cul de sac.
The cache is in a small (7.62 mm) camouflaged ammo box. The direct approach to the cache has relatively solid footing, but who ever takes the direct approach to a cache? So be careful of loose rock if you're poking around or lost -- it can be a hazard to your ankles.
This park can be accessed either from the street (but not the street that appears closest to it on most maps), or from a connecting trail to Veteran's Park. Why not make an afternoon of it, and start here, continue on to Veteran's Cache, and thence to I'll Be Your Huckleberry? (The reverse itinerary works, too, but involves a little doubling back.) Because you may take the wrong approach and will have to do some steep climbing, the overall terrain difficulty can be as high as 3 or as easy as a 1.
There are almost always some sort of rock sculptures that are erected in the cul-de-sac: often a spiral (a la Robert Smithson), sometimes a mini-Stonehenge, occasionally something that looks like it might belong in a certain horror film.
Naturalists will also note the microclimate in this quarry. Because of the reduced amount of light and additional moisture, the species in this mini-canyon are unlike those on the surrounding hills. The bottom can get very wet during the rainy season, and there's generally more water here than elsewhere so there are a lot of animals and birds. We have seen deer, foxes, coyotes, and numerous bird species here in addition to the usual sapiens and canine suspects.
This quarry provided the granite boulders for the US Coast Guard Pier on the Monterey waterfront.
Variable GPSr reception may increase your level of difficulty. The hint below is perhaps a little literal, but if you're there on a day with lots of low satellites, the hint should be enough to get to the search spot.
This is not a bustling area, but it is popular with the aforementioned kids killing time and dogwalkers; so while the cache is well away from where the casual visitor might go, keeping it very well hidden is necessary to prevent its plunder.
There's a trash can by the streambed on the way out to the street, and there are doggy pooper-scooper bags (usually) in stock for various kinds of organic and inorganic trash you might find. We are stocking this container with Cache In Trash Out Bags -- please feel to take one without a swap! (Please log it if you did, though, so we can keep it stocked.)
Take your picture with the disposable camera, or take a picture of the current configuration of the rock sculptures if you are camera shy. Please log it on the website if you took some shots so we'll know when to come fetch the camera.
One last warning -- if you approach the wrong way, go back:
Back of the house they went, where Danny's footsteps had sounded, and there was no Danny. They came to the edge of the gulch, where a sharp zig-zag led down to the bottom of that ancient watercourse wherein no stream had flowed for many generations. The following people saw Pilon dart down the path. They went after him, slowly. And they found Pilon at the bottom of the gulch, leaning over a broken and twisted Danny. He had fallen forty feet. - John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat
And remember: no tengas miedo, es un juego.