Even with the temperatures in the 70's and 80's, there's still a lot of snow in the mountains and probably will be well into early summer. Feeling the need to get out and enjoy what was supposed to be a gorgeous day, we decided to do a hike that Tom had done (2018) that was right in our own backyard! Although he tied it in with Peak 4938, we didn't make it quite that far due to an ongoing back strain that Kent has been dealing with for the last month or so. It was good to get out and stretch our muscles on this fun little hike to Twin Peaks.
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Using the Broken Mesa Rim Trail, we quickly climbed to the top of a large mesa . . .
From here West Twin Peak became visible and we began heading cross-country for this little knoll |
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| We worked our way up through this field of lava boulders and within 10 minutes we were on top |
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We knew, from the topo map Tom's uses, that there was a benchmark on top . . .
Interestingly, it's not listed on the National Geodetic site and unfortunately they won't allow it to be added??
Mill Benchmark was placed here in 1954
Something that made this benchmark unique (at least to us) was the arrow etched into the lava rock that pointed towards where we would locate the benchmark medallion
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There were nice views from west Twin Peak . . . looking north towards the snow covered Pine Valley Mountains
(Kent used this time to stretch out his back) |
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| Now we're heading to east Twin Peak . . . it's just a short walk, across a shallow saddle, to reach the other knoll |
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| Looking back toward west Twin Peak |
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| There wasn't even a breeze . . . it was fun watching this hawk soaring above us |
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| New plants spring to life, while others fade away |
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On the way back we made a large loop to catch back up with the Broken Mesa Trail . . .
In doing so, we came across the remnants of this tree stump that burned in a recent fire . . .
It was interesting how the charcoal cubes provided an outline of the tree that once stood here! |
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Back on the Broken Mesa Rim Trail and heading back down to the parking area . . .
Twin Peaks can be seen just above Kent |
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| We had nice views of Red Mountain and the Beaver Dam Mountains |
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| Our last glimpse of Twin Peaks before we drop off the mesa |
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| Red Cliffs Desert Reserve offers 62,000 acres to explore just north of St. George and neighboring towns |
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This is the Cottonwood Spring Pipeline and is used to bring water approximately fifteen miles from the base of the Pine Valley Mountains to the city of St. George . . . The original cement pipeline, from 1936, still lays next to the more modern steel pipe that is now used . . . It was fun to marvel at the effort and ingenuity that was used to accomplish this feat (We could hear water flowing through the pipeline as we crossed over it) |
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Going back to the parking area, on a slightly different route, we came across this pipe feeding an old tire some refreshingly cool water . . . not sure if it was a spring or if it tapped into the pipeline??
Regardless, the wildlife obviously appreciate and use it . . . there were several deer tracks in the area |
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| Almost back . . . looking down at Yellow Knolls . . . another interesting area that we'll come back and explore on another hike! |
Altogether, we ended up doing just a little under 5-miles on this outing. You could certainly make this a shorter hike (3 miles) if you just went to Twin Peaks and headed straight back or, as Tom did, it could be made into a longer hike (7.5 miles) by combining it with Peak 4938. Click
here to get a topo map and GPS tracks from Tom's Peakbagger.com post.
