I need to offset my substantial website costs somehow! You can download a hike/drive GPX to assist you here. Before sharing my GPX tracks with others, please remember my site is otherwise a free resource.
GPX track added to your cart.
Feb 19, 2021 — Slaughter Benchmark is a bit of a drive to reach on the west side of the San Rafael Swell, but the roads leading out to it were overall is very good condition, likely passable by any car. We came in on County Road 920 (38.7645, -111.34961) and navigated here (38.63916, -111.11295), turned left, and followed this dirt road to the cliff edge.
Whiley and I set out to the north along a likely illegally-made ATV track, leaving it occasionally to stay along the rim and enjoy the views. A bit over a mile in brought us to the end of the mellow rim, the upcoming landscape replaced with drainages and eroded cliffs. The fist obstacle was a small rocky ridge running perpendicular to the crest, on which we could see a small keyhole feature that would serve as access to the opposite side of the small rocky ridge. Sticking to the ridge crest here resulted in a narrow catwalk and a Class 3 scramble into the keyhole. This option is beautiful, but you can keep the route easier by sticking to the left of the small rock outcrop along the crest and continuing to the keyhole. On the opposite side of the keyhole, a steep Class 2 slope led us down. To the north we could see our next objective, a wide break in the steep cliffs. Although my attached map may look like you can skip the long wrap-around, but the loose and dangerous cliffs would prevent an attempt at going up and over.
To reach the wide break in the dangerous cliff face, we side-hilled at its base. Keeping high would result in obnoxiously steep terrain, and too low would mean navigating many rivulets and drop-offs. We did a good job going in and coming back out with only the occasional backtracking of a few feet, so finding a route shouldn't be too tedious. Once at the wide break, we dropped into the drainage below and ascended to its head. The drainage was pretty, but mostly unremarkable. Steep Class 2 (maybe 2+) led to a false summit of Slaughter Benchmark, and mellow terrain brought us to the high point. The views of the San Rafael Swell were great. Thanks to Sam Grant for the route.
Please consider helping me out if you find my site useful. I'm not sponsored, so all site fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing these trip reports is unpaid. You can also hire me as a web developer. I really appreciate it!
If you find my site helpful, please help me replace my many broken cameras, fund my website fees (hosting, APIs, security), or just support my countless hours of work. I pay for all expenses myself, and all trip reports I post are unpaid and unsponsored, so any support is really appreciated!
If using PayPal, please select their option for "Sending to a friend" so they don't take out fees, thank you.
