We were looking for a short morning hike, close to home, so that we could spend the afternoon pruning trees in our orchard. Tom had done this hike four years ago and said it was a good one if you didn't mind going around rocks, getting stuck by cactus, or being poked by manzanita . . . all of which were true. Even with his ominous forecast we decided to take the challenge and go for the Leeds Benchmark. We found it to be a quite enjoyable hike that provided great views on a beautiful February morning!
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| Kent leads the way using the GPS coordinates that we borrowed from our friend Tom |
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| There was definitely more snow on the north facing slopes than we were expecting |
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| There were a lot of cacti . . . both exposed and snow-covered |
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Heading for the next bump
(Once on the ridgeline there are a lot of ups and downs as you make your way for the highpoint) |
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| Pine Valley Mountains look pretty showcased against the sunny blue skies! |
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| We had nice views of Kolob Canyons |
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After signing the summit register, on the high point of the Cottonwood Wilderness area,
we learned that the benchmark was located on the next peak to our south |
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Leeds Benchmark was placed here in 1954
Thankfully, it was positioned on the ridge where the sun was able to keep it free of snow |
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The benchmark is located in the rocks directly in front of Kent . . .
We had a little trouble finding this one and had to text Tom to get directions |
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Time to head back
Kent's not going over the edge . . . just working towards the rim where there was less snow |
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| The snow and moist sand made it pretty easy to follow our tracks back along the rim |
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| We came across this small frozen waterfall on our final descent |
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When we got home, and looked at our pictures, we realized we didn't have one showing where the benchmark was located . . . So, Allison took a drive to Leeds the following day to get this shot . . .
Thus the cloudy skies!
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As the "crow flies" this hike is only about two miles round-trip, however, with all the diversions around rocks, cactus, and manzanita it turned out to be about three miles and had 700 ft of total elevation gain. If you're interested in knowing specifics about this hike you can click
here for a link to Tom's Peakbagger.com posting . . . it will give you a topo map and GPS tracks. Make sure to do this hike in the cooler months, otherwise it could be brutal and not very enjoyable.
