Bakers Benchmark

Sometimes May can be a tough month to plan a hike! It’s usually too warm to stay in southern Utah, yet going north, the snow hasn’t melted on the highest peaks and keeps many of the roads closed. Keeping this in mind (and wanting some cooler air) we decided to plan a “road hike” to Bakers benchmark in the Tushar Mountains east of Beaver. Our plan was to walk from the Jimmy Reed Trailhead, using Paiute ATV trail #5 (which we assumed would be closed due to remaining snow drifts) to hike and recover Bakers BM. Sounded like a good plan (and it was), but the road was open and we could have driven to within a half mile of the benchmark. Oh well, we enjoyed a nine-mile hike to an area of the Tushar’s we had never been to – and it won’t be our last!

We could have driven the road . . . but we wanted some exercise! 
Off to our left is Crazy Creek 

A little farther up the road we came to Lousy Jim Creek . . .
We could see a few small trout . . . might have to come back and wet a line! 

This old sign shows more trails in the area . . .
Kent has already planned a route for a future hike!

Wilson Creek was really flowing . . . crystal clear spring water

Water flows no matter what . . . even under this snow bridge
(Notice the optical illusion . . . that's a white boulder you can see through the window . . .
not a clump of fallen snow)

One of the many carvings we saw on the aspen trees along the road . . .
Not sure what this one is saying . . . Don't make this a National Park??

Bakers Benchmark was placed here in 1938 . . .
It's in remarkably good condition after 83 years and surviving a forest fire!

We located the Benchmark using GPS coordinates . . .
Views of the Beaver Valley are visible through the burnt trees

Reference Marker #1 was easy to find . . . we could not locate RM #2 . . .
It's possible it was destroyed in the recent fire or a tree has fallen on it

Update on Reference Marker #2:
We returned (with Tom) to the area one-week later to hike Lousy Jim Creek and Tom wanted to
recover Bakers BM for himself.  He had the coordinates and just as we expected a tree had
fallen and covered it up

Reference Marker #2

This area burned during the Skull Flat 2 fire in 2019

It was hard to avoid the soot . . .
for a minute Allison thought she was hiking with the Frito Bandito!

Even Chipper added a few black soot stripes to his liver spots!

We had nice views of Circleville Mountain (left) and Birch Creek Mountain (right) . . .
Birch Creek Mountain is on our "to do" list for this year

Looking to our east, Mount Holly (left) and Lake Peak (right) were visible . . .
 Both show what little snow is left after a very dry winter
(Lake Peak is where we first met our buddy Tom, and his dog Lola, nearly three years ago)

So much to do in the Tushar's . . . looking forward to another good season of hiking and exploring in these special mountains.  Let the fun begin!