Last July we met our friend, Tom, on the Paunsaugunt Plateau to do Black Benchmark. He had arrived the evening before and had made his way out to the Pink Cliffs to locate Pink Benchmark. He said the roads were in bad shape, but he thought we might enjoy the views. Knowing Tom, if the views impressed him, then we needed to go see them for ourselves. So, with our friends John & Mary, and their Side-by-Sides, we made plans to locate Pink Benchmark on one of our three-days of exploring the area south of Tropic Reservoir.
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| Traveling about three miles south southwest of Crawford Pass brought us to this gorgeous overlook . . . Is it possible that the Pink Cliffs could be any more magnificent than this? |
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| Meadow Creek Arch was easy to spot |
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| Wait a minute! There are two . . . and the second is bigger than the first! (There appears to be a way down off the rim that would get you to both of these . . . it would be fun to stand under them . . . we'll have to do this the next time we are here) |
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| Since the white tip top of the rim (9,275 ft) was within reach, Kent said . . . "We've got to get up there and see what the views are like in the amphitheater below!" |
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| Yep, pretty awesome! |
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| Time to get back in the Side-by-Sides and make our way towards the Pink Cliffs . . . We were fortunate that the roads had been graded the day before . . . although they weren't perfect, they were much better than what Tom had described |
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| Even though you can drive right to the edge of the cliff, we chose to walk the last tenth of a mile so we could stretch our legs . . . Later, we returned for the vehicles and drove to the end of the road, where there was a picnic table, and ate our lunches |
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| Mr. Horny Toad was directing us to the benchmark . . . "Straight ahead, folks!" |
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| We're close . . . Reference Marker #1 |
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| While the formations were outstanding, I'm not sure they were quite as impressive as the earlier cove . . . However, what made this cliff standout was the views . . . you could see for hundreds of miles! |
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| Here's reference marker #2 . . . Just follow the arrows, from #1 and #2, and where they intersect you will find the benchmark |
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| Kent giving Mary a lesson on how to locate the benchmark |
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| Here's the 1938 benchmark . . . it was partially covered with dirt (Both reference markers and the benchmark are on the southeast side of the road . . . easy to locate) |
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| How about this for a view? Great place for a picnic! (Click on the picture for a larger picture) |
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| On the way back to the Side-by-Sides, we decided to try and locate the azimuth . . . The description was kind of cryptic: Located 175 yards NNE, next to a large tree, 45ft from the rim . . . Can you see the metal post (in the ground) between John & Mary . . . we found it! |
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| Pretty rare to find one of these! |
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| This old tree almost looks like one of those scary trees from the Wizard of Oz! |
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| We tried to locate a triangular crib that was placed on this point by John Wesley Powell when he was surveying the cliffs in 1871-1872 . . . It was here when the surveyors placed the benchmark in 1938 . . . All we could find were several trees that had been chopped down with an axe . . . Possibly they made the crib from these??? (FYI we found a Powell survey marker {still in tact} on top of Adams's Head in 2021) |
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| On our way back to the Crawford Pass Road, Allison saw this carved in an aspen tree . . . It seemed apropos for our journey! |
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| Back to the main road . . . we have made a circle by taking the Mill Hollow Road . . . John especially liked this road as we saw well over twenty deer |
If you happen to be on the Paunsaugunt Plateau, don't miss this side trip! From the King's Creek Campground, by Tropic Reservoir, it was about a 25-mile roundtrip excursion on mostly decent roads. If you're thinking of doing this loop, please contact us and we can give you a detailed itinerary, with road numbers and mileage. This is probably one of the best view points in all of Utah . . . don't miss it!
