The Pueblo Area is in the heart of Santa Teresa County Park. Here are parking lots, picnic and barbecue areas, drinking water, a volleyball court, horseshoe pits, and a restroom. The open field is good for kite-flying or frisbee-throwing. (Sorry, no R/C planes or gliders anymore.) It is the best place to start hikes that take you to many of the caches in the park. This where to begin the long and challenging Hidden Secrets/Hairy Plodder Trail multi-caches. This multi-cache is a training sequence for those multis. It is easily accessible from the parking lots, but should provide practice and experience to tackle the more difficult multis. This can be a quick lunchtime cache. Actually, coming here at lunch mid-week may be the best time, as the park is usually the least crowded. The Pueblo Area can be busy on weekends, especially if an event is going on at the group picnic site. The only catch is that you need to pay for parking unless you park in the tiny free lot higher up Bernal Road and walk in. There are so many caches in Santa Teresa Park, it's worth buying a yearly pass, which is good at all the county parks.
This multi consists of 2 caches. The first is a clue only, not a container. It has the coordinates of the final in the sequence written on it. The final cache is a camo'd micro-cache. None of these should require bushwhacking. The first is wheelchair-accessible, but the last stage requires going on a dirt path. Rattlesnakes are common in the park. You can find them even in the middle of a road or trail, so always watch out for them, and watch where you stick your hands. The first cache is in an area where you might find a lot of muggles, so be sly. The final is a little more out of the way, but be alert to make sure no one's watching. The final cache contains a logsheet and pencil. Make sure you replace it in the same orientation that you found it, or in the least visible way, and cover it up a little.
Note: the orginal cache, which was a decon container, was muggled. The replacement is a sign-only micro in the same area (bring your own pen). It's micro on the inside, not so micro on the outside. It may be a little harder to find, which is why I bumped the difficulty rating up. Hopefully it's a lot harder to find by muggles.
Update: 6/1/06 I checked on this today. Cache 1 was missing. I replaced it with a different type of "cache" in the same location, but I put a backup one a short distance away at N 37° 12.739 W 121° 47.396 in case the primary one gets muggled.
Update: 12/25-26/06 Stage 1 was muggled or vandalized. I replaced it with 6, count 'em 6, redudant caches. That's more redundancy than NASA uses. 2 are at the primary location. The rest are within 20 feet in 2 different types of locations. Hopefully at least one of these will survive. If you want a real challenge, try finding all 6. There may even be another old one out there, but I forgot where I put it.
Update 1/6/09: Stage 2 was a victim of park maintenance. I replaced it with quintuply redundant clues. There are 3 at GZ of a similar type. The hint applies to this. There are 2 more backup clues within 20 feet. The clues contain only the minutes of the final. The degrees don't change from stage 1. For a challenge, try to find all 5. Note that none of these stages requires taking your feet off the ground. If you see a cache in a tree, it's not mine, and it's not active.
6/20/16 Update: Stage 1 disappeared. Maybe it was a casualty of park maintenance. I replaced it in the exact same spot with 2 redundant clues. I put a third clue a few feet away. Stage 2 has 1 clue,and it was still there. I checked on stage 3 a few days ago, and it was OK.
10/2/17 Update: Stage 1 replaced with 2 redundant clues in the same place. I replaced the final with a camo'd pill container. It includes a pencil.
1/24/20 Upddate: Stage 2 replaced with 2 redundant clues. Replace them in the same orientation you found them. They contain minutes only for the next stage.
11/8/21 Update: I heard that Stage 2 would be removed and replaced by Park Maintenance, so I removed the clues and moved them to Stage 1, essentially making this a 2-stage cache. I edited the description and hints to reflect that.
5/11/22 Update: Stage 1 disappeared. I replaced it in the same location and added 2 redundant clues not too far away, where the old stage 2 was. The latter are at N 37° 12.755' W 121° 47.383'. If you can't find stage 1, try this alternative location.
Here is a list of all the caches in Santa Teresa Park: http://www.stpfriends.org/STP_Geocaches.html There are a lot, but it's a big park. There's still room for more.