With rain and snow predicted for the upcoming week, we thought we'd take advantage of mild temperatures and head out for an adventure close to home. We've been interested in recovering Suicide BM, which is west of Colorado City, AZ, but were a little concerned the road might be rougher than we wanted to take our Tacoma on. So our alternate plan was to recover Ledge BM, which was closer to Colorado City, but used the same road . . . that way we could check out the road conditions and make Suicide BM a future hike. Having never been in this area before, this outing provided us all that we could ask for in a short hike . . . great views and interesting rock formations and a benchmark!
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| This little arch caught our attention as we drove to our destination |
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We parked and started heading slightly southwest toward the benchmark using the GPS coordinates . . .
Almost immediately we started traversing over some most interesting rock formations |
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| Colorful rocks and petrified wood lay scattered everywhere |
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Soon we were at the rims edge and quickly located both reference markers and the remnants of a tripod . . .
But couldn't find the benchmark . . . Little did we know, Kent was standing on it! |
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Using the lessons we've learned from Tom, we knew that the reference markers pointed towards the benchmark. With Allison standing on one RM, and Kent on the other, we walked in the direction of the arrows until we intersected . . . Then Allison got out her garden gloves and started moving sand . . . Voila, the Ledge BM!
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| Seventy years later and the Ledge Benchmark can breathe, again! |
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| Just a few of the neat rock formations we came across |
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After locating the benchmark we headed southeast, following the surveyors instructions,
in search of the azimuth marker . . . it was supposed to be located on a piece of bedrock that had broken off from the rim . . . just like they said, there it was, and in direct site of the BM (the arrow on the horizon points to the benchmark). |
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| Ledge azimuth mark was placed here in 1952 |
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| It's just us . . . out for a leisurely stroll! |
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| There were several potholes, but only a few held water |
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| Exposed twisted pinyon pine tree root . . . the tree was still alive |
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| More fun rocks! |
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| A unique pothole surrounded by lichen |
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| Looking back toward the benchmark and azimuth mark . . . and all the colorful rocks that form the rim |
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| Kent is looking at a small mesa, that stands isolated from the main mesa |
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As we wound our way back to the truck,
We were surprised to come across this General Land Office Survey waymark from 1916 |
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Standing in Arizona looking toward Colorado City, AZ and Hildale, UT
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| It was fun exploring the sandstone formations as we made our way back down off the rim |
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| We certainly didn't expect to find so many unique formations |
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| Kent looks so small . . . do you see him? |
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| More odd shapes and caves |
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| Honeycomb weathering or tafoni . . . very interesting! |
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One last view of the sandstone and tafoni . . . now it's only a short walk back down the road to our truck.
This hike turned out to be much more than 'just' a BM hike! |
What a fun afternoon! While it was only a short walk (half-mile) from our truck to the Ledge Benchmark, we decided to further explore along the mesa rim and all it's fun sandstone formations. By doing so, we ended up making a 3-mile circular route across the southern and eastern rims of the mesa. We're looking forward to going back to see more of this country when we recover Suicide Benchmark!
