Pink Cliffs

Last July we met our friend, Tom, on the Paunsaugunt Plateau to do Black Benchmark.  He had arrived the evening before and had made his way out to the Pink Cliffs to locate Pink Benchmark.  He said the roads were in bad shape, but he thought we might enjoy the views.  Knowing Tom, if the views impressed him, then we needed to go see them for ourselves.  So, with our friends John & Mary, and their Side-by-Sides, we made plans to locate Pink Benchmark on one of our three-days of exploring the area south of Tropic Reservoir.

Traveling about three miles south southwest of Crawford Pass brought us to this gorgeous overlook . . .
Is it possible that the Pink Cliffs could be any more magnificent than this?

Meadow Creek Arch was easy to spot

Wait a minute!  There are two . . . and the second is bigger than the first!
(There appears to be a way down off the rim that would get you to both of these . . . it would be fun to stand under them . . . we'll have to do this the next time we are here)

Since the white tip top of the rim (9,275 ft) was within reach, Kent said . . .
 "We've got to get up there and see what the views are like in the amphitheater below!"

Yep, pretty awesome!

Time to get back in the Side-by-Sides and make our way towards the Pink Cliffs . . .
We were fortunate that the roads had been graded the day before . . . although they weren't perfect,
 they were much better than what Tom had described

Even though you can drive right to the edge of the cliff,
we chose to walk the last tenth of a mile so we could stretch our legs . . .
Later, we returned for the vehicles and drove to the end of the road,
where there was a picnic table, and ate our lunches

Mr. Horny Toad was directing us to the benchmark . . . "Straight ahead, folks!"

We're close . . . Reference Marker #1

While the formations were outstanding, I'm not sure they were quite as impressive as the earlier cove . . .
However, what made this cliff standout was the views . . . you could see for hundreds of miles!

Here's reference marker #2 . . . 
Just follow the arrows, from #1 and #2, and where they intersect you will find the benchmark

Kent giving Mary a lesson on how to locate the benchmark

Here's the 1938 benchmark . . . it was partially covered with dirt
(Both reference markers and the benchmark are on the southeast side of the road . . . easy to locate)

How about this for a view?  Great place for a picnic!
(Click on the picture for a larger picture)

On the way back to the Side-by-Sides, we decided to try and locate the azimuth . . .
The description was kind of cryptic:  Located 175 yards NNE, next to a large tree, 45ft from the rim . . .
Can you see the metal post (in the ground) between John & Mary . . . we found it!

Pretty rare to find one of these!

This old tree almost looks like one of those scary trees from the Wizard of Oz!

We tried to locate a triangular crib that was placed on this point by John Wesley Powell
when he was surveying the cliffs in 1871-1872 . . .
It was here when the surveyors placed the benchmark in 1938 . . .
All we could find were several trees that had been chopped down with an axe . . .
Possibly they made the crib from these???
(FYI we found a Powell survey marker {still in tact} on top of Adams's Head in 2021)

On our way back to the Crawford Pass Road, Allison saw this carved in an aspen tree . . .
It seemed apropos for our journey! 

Back to the main road . . . we have made a circle by taking the Mill Hollow Road . . .
John especially liked this road as we saw well over twenty deer

If you happen to be on the Paunsaugunt Plateau, don't miss this side trip!  From the King's Creek Campground, by Tropic Reservoir, it was about a 25-mile roundtrip excursion on mostly decent roads.  If you're thinking of doing this loop, please contact us and we can give you a detailed itinerary, with road numbers and mileage.  This is probably one of the best view points in all of Utah . . . don't miss it!

Paunsaugunt Plateau

We had planned on making this trip to the Paunsaugunt Plateau, last September, with our friends John & Mary, but had to cancel due to an unforeseen event.  Now, eight months later, it worked out that our schedules aligned and so it was time to spend a few days exploring this wonderful area south of Tropic Reservoir.  The pictures that follow cover several days of riding Side-by-Sides, a little hiking, and some fishing.  As we had hoped, John & Mary enjoyed this high plateau as much as we did, and are planning on making another trip back on their own.

Violets growing along a creek

Mary trying her luck on a pretty mountain stream
(She caught one but it got off the hook and back in the water before Allison could get a picture)

Now, it was John's turn . . .
You would never think this creek would hold some nice Cutthroats, but it does!

One cast and John pulled out this pretty eight-inch Cutthroat

After an hour of fishing, we decided to ride up to the west side of the Plateau and explore the Black Butte area

We hiked a small portion of the Grand View trail that leads under Black Butte . . .
A good picture of Mary, John and Kent . . . too bad we didn't get our photographer in the picture

Greenleaf manzanita in bloom

As we were making our way back to camp, the thunder clouds began to build . . .
It rained all around us, but we only got a few drops . . . just enough to mess up the windshields

Hard to believe this young bristlecone pine can survive on top of these cliffs . . .
The cliffs, in the center of the picture, were the ones we were standing by in the last picture

Back at King's Creek Campground . . .
Someone had left this firewood at a remote campsite that we came across as we were driving . . .
It was nice of them to think of the next person, which happened to be us!

King's Creek Campground was a great place to use as a base camp . . .
Surprisingly, it was very quiet with more open spots than taken ones

New pine cones forming on a fir tree

The next day we headed for the Pink Cliffs . . . 
This was such an amazing loop that we had to give it it's own post (click on the link above to view) . . .
On the way back to the campground, we tried fishing another of the many streams in the area

Kent spent more time getting his hook unsnagged, than he did fishing . . . 
Although we saw a few nice trout, we couldn't get any on the bank

We had seen this old cabin on a previous hike to Water Benchmark, but hadn't stopped to check it out . . .
So we asked John & Mary if they wouldn't mind taking us back to it, since we were in the area
and the fishing wasn't really working out

Quite the cabin . . .
At one time it had been drywalled inside, had a stove and even some electricity . . . 
What we found most humorous, though, was the outhouse which had a cement toilet!  

They certainly had a gorgeous valley for a camp

On our last day we decided to try fishing the East Fork of the Sevier River

Mary got serious about sneaking up on the trout!

But it was Allison who caught this nice brown trout

One last picture of our friends before we head back to camp and pack up

It's really hard to believe that such a neat area lies just a few miles west of Bryce Canyon National Park.  While the Park is flooded with sightseers from all over the world, this part of the Paunsaugunt Plateau sees only a few visitors and is open public land.  If you happen to be in the area, you might want to take the road to Tropic Reservoir . . . you won't be disappointed!

Frisco Peak

While in the San Francisco Mountains, exploring for charcoal kilns, we thought we'd take a side trip to the top of Frisco Peak (9,629') . . . the highest point of the range and a place we'd never been.  We were surprised by the views which allowed us to see west to the Snake Range, north to Delta and east to the Tushar's.  This mountain certainly had the feel of a much higher peak than we were expecting.

Looking north towards Delta and the Sevier Lake bed . . . which is just a large alkali flat

We had heard there was a hang gliding ramp at the summit . . .
Our friend, Mary, is practicing for her lift off!

I guess this register says all you need to know about the ramp . . .
According to Ramblers, a pilot has flown his hang glider 178 miles to Park City from this peak!

Scary, scary!
There's no turning back . . . once you're committed it's do or die!

There were even a few aspens at the top waiting for their summer leaves

Oh, did we mention there are "tons" of towers at the summit?
We assume this "sky mountain" provides a good place to put these transmitters

We were able to pull up the NGS Map and found that a benchmark had been placed here in 1971 . . . We found reference marker #2, which points to the benchmark, but were unable to locate it or reference marker #1

Upon further inspection, Allison located the drill hole where the benchmark was originally set . . . it didn't surprise us too much that it was missing as it was located in the middle of the road . . . however, the last reported observation of this benchmark, in 2008, showed it being present

Looking east towards the Tushar Mountains near Beaver . . .
You can see the road (in the lower right hand corner) that we took to reach the top of Frisco Peak . . .
The photo also shows the pinion pine flats where we have spent most of the day exploring charcoal kilns that once supplied the smelters in the town of Frisco, at the mountain's base
(Click on the picture for a larger view)

Frisco Peak even supported an observatory (The Willard L. Eccles Observatory) . . . 
It was placed here in 2010 by the University of Utah

Time to head back down and search for one more set of kilns

A special thanks to our friends, John & Mary, who took us to the top in their Side-by-Sides

Almost down . . .
Mary looking at the switchbacks that will take us down the steepest part of the road

What a nice surprise this side excursion was!  We have always wondered, as we passed by on our way to Great Basin National Park, what the views were like from the top of Frisco Peak.  We were leery about driving to the top because our friend Tom said the switchbacks were not passable with his truck in 2018 (instead, he parked his truck and hiked 6.5 miles with 2,200 ft of ascent for his Peakbagger post)  To our surprise, we found the road in very good condition and wouldn't hesitate to take our Tacoma to the summit.