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| First stop was Strawberry Point Although we've seen the turnoff for this viewpoint many times, we've never taken the time to drive the eight miles of dirt road to see what it was all about . . . As our friend Tom said, "It takes longer to drive the road than complete the hike!" |
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| After a short 0.2 mile walk through the forest, we were greeted with an amazing view! It looked like a mini Cedar Breaks |
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| Kent's GPS shows that the Benchmark is straight ahead . . . at the end of the point! |
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| Strawberry Point Benchmark (9,016 ft) was placed here in 1957 . . . We could not located the two Reference Marks which were copper nails and washers cemented in drill holes |
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| Views to the north |
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| Kent is standing at the Benchmark . . . Do you see him? (By clicking on the picture it will enlarge the view) |
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| We don't often get pictures of us, but Strawberry Point is too special to pass up |
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| Driving to, and from Strawberry Point, we saw deer and pronghorn (These are pronghorn, in case you were wondering) |
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| After enjoying our time at Strawberry Point, our next stop was Strawberry Knolls These two small cinder cones are where the Pumice Benchmark is located |
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| After a short hike, we reached the top of Strawberry Knoll (8,465 ft), where an old lookout tower once stood . . . National Geodetic Survey (NGS) says it was still being used in 1971 . . . It was in this clearing that we found our benchmark |
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| Pumice Benchmark was placed here in 1938 |
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| Several feet away Kent spotted this pile of rocks . . . |
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| We discovered a fun geocache hidden in a metal ammo cannister . . . We signed their log book and covered everything back up |
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| Working our way around the knoll, Kent noticed this unusual ladder . . . It went way up the tree (even continuing on the other side for a short distance) . . . Could it have been used as a lookout in addition to the fire tower? (Henrie Knolls can be seen in the distance . . . That's where we are headed next) |
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| We came across an old road (we assume it was used to access the old tower) and followed it until it disappeared |
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| The Forest Service had been thinning trees in this area to keep the forest healthy . . . This tree stuck out with its unique design, not sure if it's moisture or sap |
Nothing too hard about these hikes! As we were completing Strawberry Knoll, we could see the clouds were building and it looked like we were going to be in for a summer downpour. As we headed for Henrie Knolls it began to sprinkle . . . you've got to love how those refreshing showers felt (okay, they turned into a heavy downpour, but still!). Their ability to cool down the temperatures in a manner of minutes was amazing! Click here to continue on with us, as we worked our way to Henrie Knolls.
If you would like a topo map and GPS tracks for the Strawberry Knolls hike, you can click here for a posting that Tom has done on the Peakbagger.com website.
