Our friend, Tom, said that Snow Benchmark was a nice hike and provided excellent views of the surrounding area. Our only hesitation about doing this hike was using the Red Mountain Trailhead to gain access to this Red Cliffs Desert Reserve highpoint. Several years ago when we hiked to
Snow Canyon Overlook we used this miserable, rock strewn trail and we swore we'd never do it again! Hoping that time might have mellowed our memories of how bad this trail really was, we set out, once again, to give it another try. Nope, it was just as bad as we remembered! However, after leaving the main trail at a split about two miles in, the excursion became much better and provided for an enjoyable early March hike.
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There it is . . . Peak 5570 . . . better know as Snow Benchmark
(If you want to know what we meant by a "miserable trail," just look at the rocks at Kent's feet!) |
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Just before we left the trail to ascend Snow Benchmark,
we veered slightly off trail to gain these fantastic views of Snow Canyon |
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| Working our way up the peak . . . nothing too bad |
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| These were the only flowers we saw blooming . . . Anderson's Buttercup |
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We have arrived!
We are looking east towards the Pine Valley Mountains . . .
Also, you can see where we left the trail for the Snow Canyon overlook (center right) |
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| Here's why we came . . . to recover Snow Benchmark . . . it was placed here in the 1950's |
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As an added bonus, for our efforts, we were rewarded with unobstructed 360° views in all directions
Looking west toward West Mountain and Jarvis Peak |
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| Kent enjoying the views of Snow Canyon State Park |
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Time to head back
There's supposed to be another benchmark on the Veyo cinder cone pictured directly above Kent's cap . . .
Looks like we'll have to plan another outing to recover that one! |
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| Working our way back down to the Red Mountain Trail |
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One last glimpse of Snow Canyon
Now it's time to begin the two and half mile slog back to the trailhead
 | Did we tell you how miserable this trail was?
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One last look at Snow Benchmark
This was taken at the Snow Canyon Scenic Overlook, off Highway 18, on our way back to St. George |
This hike ended up being just about 7-miles roundtrip. If you can survive the first two miles (and the last two!), you will find this to be a very nice outing. It provides incredible views of Snow Canyon and a good cardio workout as you make the final 800ft ascent up Peak 5570 to Snow Benchmark. If you'd like a topo map and GPS tracks for this hike you can find them by clicking
here. Thanks to Tom for providing these from his Peakbagger.com post!
