It's been almost a month since we've hiked with Tom and the Crew and with rain/snow blowing in for this upcoming week it was high time to make the most of a beautiful Fall Sunday afternoon. As Tom often does, he came up with a hike we hadn't done before that was right in our backyard - Little Black Mountain. On the southern tip of this mountain are petroglyphs - that were being heavily visited today, so we passed on them and will do them at a later time - our primary goal today was to recover the Black Benchmark and its azimuth. Couldn't have asked for a nicer afternoon hike!
We drove to the northeast side of Little Black Mountain to avoid having to scramble up the rocky cliff face on the south side (and the petroglyph visitors)
Right away we started seeing lots of shiny black rocks . . . The shine is desert varnish, a thin coating or patina of manganese, iron and silica
It was a quick, easy ascent . . . keeping an eye out for cactus
After locating the 1938 Black Benchmark (to the left of Tom's foot), and both reference marks, we took a short snack break and enjoyed the views
Now it's time to find the azimuth . . . this should be a challenge . . . all we have to go on is: "Set in a drill hole in outcropping bedrock which is flush with the ground. It is one foot west of a cairn and in the approximate center of the low bench-like ridge running south of the station." We're hoping to find it somewhere close to the arrow pictured above.
Time to move on in search of the azimuth mark Tom is hoping the cairn, built in 1938, is still there . . . Kent has his doubts . . . what's new?
Looking back as we descend the top of Little Black Mountain
It was easy walking on the bench as we searched for the azimuth . . . lots of shiny rocks
Just when we were about to give up, we spotted a pile of rocks that seemed out-of-place Sure enough, it was the cairn, that was no longer standing . . . Tom & Kent decided to rebuild it
The azimuth is in great shape . . . it was last recovered in 1960
Kent is pointing to the location of the benchmark as he stands by the azimuth and rock cairn (An azimuth must have direct line-of-sight to the benchmark)
Can you see the azimuth?
After a successful benchmark hike, Lola is ready to head for the truck . . . We are making our way towards the saddle that is to the right of the highpoint
Up on the saddle . . . now we just have to drop back down into the valley to our trucks . . . Tom's shirt really blends well with the Utah red sand (In the distance you can see Little Creek Mesa where we were last week.)
We really liked how Otto De Groff (another Peakbagger) described the view from the top of the mountain: "At the summit, one has a good view of St. George and the rapidly booming suburbs to the north, and the quiet, vast Arizona strip to the south. Two very different worlds in close proximity to each other." If you're interested in finding this BM and azimuth you can click here to see Tom's Peakbagger.com post - you will find a topo map and GPS tracks. Round trip was approximately 3.5 miles with 950 ft of total ascent . . . totally worth it!
Here's a short video Tom shot, with his GoPro, of our hike:
