We all wanted to hike, and the weather was forecast to be beautiful, but the question that lingered was, "Where did we want to go?" After a half hour of throwing options back and forth, Tom suggested retrieving Bunting Benchmark. We knew, from a trip last year to Kanab, that the BLM had a maintained trail to the top of Bunting Mesa. Upon reaching the top, we would have to use some route finding skills to traverse to the mesa's western side (about 1.5 miles) in order to recover the benchmark. This seemed to fit the bill for everyone . . . so plans were made to rendezvous in Kanab the next morning.
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| The Bunting Trailhead is located on the southwest side of Kanab, Utah |
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| The trail ascends gradually for the first 1/2 mile |
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It became more challenging as we neared the base of the cliffs
(This trail wastes no time in getting you to the top!) |
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| Once we reached the top of the mesa we started seeing a lot of fresh deer tracks |
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Using a GPS we worked our way west to reach the Bunting Benchmark . . .
Do you see anything wrong with this picture?
(Guess it was as hard to find good workers then, as now! Ha!) |
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| This little mushroom was growing under a juniper tree near the benchmark |
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| Cottonwood Canyon and its' namesake trees that line the creek bed miles below |
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The unique rock formation was perched on the edge of the canyon wall near the benchmark
One of several deer skeletons we came across up on the mesa |
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| We couldn't resist climbing up this rock to check out the views |
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| Not exactly what we expected to see . . . a frying pan! |
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Looking north toward the southern end of Bryce Canyon National Park . . .
Notice the miles of canyons and cliffs that lie in between in the area known as the Grand Staircase |
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| It turned out to be a great day for a hike . . . good visibility in every direction |
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| Beyond the White Cliffs we could see Mollies Nipple thirty-five miles away |
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We were surprised at how steep parts of the trail were as we descended
(Ironically, they didn't seem that steep going up) |
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What a gorgeous day and an enjoyable hike!
Fall, winter and spring are the best time of the year to hike in Southwest Utah |
We really enjoyed this outing and couldn't have asked for a better day to explore the Kanab area. Although going across the mesa was nothing special, the trail going up and the views from the eastern rim of Cottonwood Canyon were outstanding.
If you're interested in doing this hike (or a portion of it), you can find the topo map and GPS tracks of our trek on Tom's Peakbagger.com post by clicking
here. Round trip was about 7.5 miles with 1,900 ft of elevation gain . . . most coming at the start.
