Fort Snelling Stash
aka Skyleaf's Secret Snelling State Park Stash Cache
This cache is located in Fort Snelling State Park, part of Minnesota's State Parks system located near the city of Saint Paul in both Hennepin and Ramsey Counties (this cache is in Ramsey County). A Minnesota State Parks vehicle sticker is required to park your vehicle. The sticker costs $7 for a daily pass or $35 for a yearly pass. The Park is open from 8 AM to 10 PM daily.
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This cache is between two trails that run through the interior of Pike Island. The trails are easy, flat, and well-kempt year-round, but the cache requires some bushwhacking that can get quite overgrown in the summer. If you're searching around then, I recommend approaching from the trail that runs under the line clearing (from the south) to minimize your bushwhack. The round-trip journey for this cache is about 2.5 miles, but if you've already come this far I recommend continuing your journey east to the tip of Pike Island where the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers converge. An old geocache named Northern Pike used to call that spot home, and the Mendota Earthcache, the oldest Earthcache in Minnesota, currently does.
The cache container is a small plastic grip container, partially covered with camouflage duct tape. Some parts are intentionally left uncovered to meet the DNR's requirements for citizen geocaches in State Parks, which require containers to be transparent. To retrieve this cache, you must utilize unique features of nature. No need to damage any beacons! I and the Park staff thank you.
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Thank you to Krista Jensen and the other staff of Fort Snelling State Park who were very useful with the geocache placement process and for the approval of this one. The proper paperwork has been filled out and the Park has it on file.