I found Butano State Park several years ago while driving the backroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. When I found the area, I fell in love with it. The area is very quiet and allows one to do a lot of quiet reflection.
This cache is located near Little Butano Creek. There are two routes that will get you to the location you want to go. The more scenic route is given away by the name of the cache. I would recommend this route for the hiker who enjoys the trip. Dogs are not allowed on the trail, but are okay on the alternate route. Bikes are allowed on the alternate route as well.
Getting a good signal in the area, all the way to the cache and at the cache location itself can be tricky. It took two visits to get a reasonable set of coordinates. I have raised the difficulty by half a point to take this into consideration. If you find that there are better coordinates, and that you have faith in those coordinates, let me know and I will evaluate them. Once you get to the location, finding the cache should not be too difficult. No need to climb any hills or wade through any water.
The cache is an ammo box and originally contained: glow in the dark stars, a compass (more of a souvenier) Mardi Gras necklace straight from Florida, key locator, Star Trek Conquest CD, Tatchet Screwdriver, an emergency poncho, dinosaur Z-Cards, Aall weather wallet, emergency blanket, a post card of the skunk train, log book, and pencils.
Given the difficulty of getting a good satellite lock due to the canyon walls in this location, I have found a website that you can use to predict satellite visibility for a given location and time. There are two options for this. The first is to go to the website Interactive GPS Satellite Predictions. Enter the coordinates for this cache in degrees, minutes, and seconds (N37 12 50.16 W122 19 0.9). For an elevation mask, use about 30 degrees. This is just a guess, I haven't actually compared it with the terrain there. Enter the date and time that you expect to be at the location. The time should be in GMT time. Add 8 hours to the PST to get GMT. Click Predict Satellites. The next page will show the elevation and azimuth of each of the visible satellites from that location.
Another option is to download and install Trimble Navigation's Planning Software. The software is pretty slick and is freely downloaded and used.
You will of course need at least three visible satellites, but more is better. At the cache site you should be able to get reception given these conditions. However, along the trail to the cache site, it will be a little more tricky. If you come up with a more accurate elevation mask at the cache site, let me know!
The hint will get you to the cache if you get in the general area.
I would love to see some pictures posted! Have fun!