This lovely old green wall was uncovered recently when road crews cleared the area.
The wall is somewhere in the Santa Cruz mountains, within 2 miles of the posted coordinates. It's visible from a main road, but it's not visible on Google Earth*. Do you know where this wall is? If so, you can go straight there and start looking. You'll find the cache within 20' of the wall.
If not, you can do a little bit of research into the area's recent history. Your goal is to identify a local landmark to use as a starting point for a simple projection. The projection will get you within a few feet of the cache location. (Note that you will need to do the projection online in advance, because there are now "No Trespassing" signs at the landmark in question. This is not a field puzzle.)
1) The surrounding area was purchased in 2016 by "Scientology's Richest Couple".
2) The "city" in question was famous locally for a unique art shop. The proprietor sadly passed away in 2015, after running the shop for 40 years.
The front door of this shop is your starting point. From the front door, calculate a projection of 110 meters (361 feet) at a bearing of 254 degrees (true). You can check your results with Certitude.
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
The cache is accessible 24/7 and there's ample parking at the site. Enjoy your visit to the Santa Cruz mountains and happy hunting!
*At the time of publication, the Google Earth image still shows the wall completely covered with berry bushes.
Congrats to Michael_SFBA on the quick FTF!