Hike The Wickiup and Indian Benchmark San Rafael Swell BLM, UT

Jun 19, 2023 — After an excellent morning of fun San Rafael Peaks with friends, I set out on my own for one more small summer desert hike, clearly another attempt to overheat my body yet again. The Wikiup and Indian Benchmark are a couple of summits just off Interstate 70 that seemed colorful and interesting enough to check out. Head north here (38.88293, -110.65831) on a road suitable to vehicles with at least some clearance. There are a few rocky sections, but the road is overall very good. I parked where I did because it served as a nice access point for reaching both peaks without having to move my car.

First up was The Wikiup, a colorfully photogenic and conical peak with an eroded south face. It seemed the most pleasant option to reach the summit would be to head toward it from a low, wide hump on its southeast side. After some light navigating through the lumpy desert, I ascended a slope and gained the hump. This ended up being the right choice, since the view toward The Wikiup from here was pretty cool, and I was able to just wander along and take in the scenery rather than potentially struggle up the less-good terrain if approaching more directly from the peak's south.

After a few super minor lumps I was at the base of The Wikiup, which appeared far more eroded and steep from here. The ground is soft and a social trail is forming enough that it might be visible from farther away, so do your best not to kick too much dirt off to prevent erosion. I found myself crawling up the narrowing slope at one point, and one of the rock layers forced a Class 2+ move on sandy rock. A weakness to overcome a small lip pushed into the Class 3 realm. Above the lip, the summit perch was visible ahead, one more Class 2+ move required to overcome a loose obstacle.

I backtracked to my car and then headed south through a wash toward Indian Benchmark toward a toe on the northern side of the peak. I encountered a little bit of Class 2 higher up along this slope. I continued south along the flat mesatop, the high point seen ahead. There was a ton of cryptobiotic soil along this portion, most of which I could avoid by keeping close to the east rim, where I picked up a minor wash that took me to the base of a final Class 2 slope. I ascended this final hundred feet and continued on flat ground to the high point.