The Dude Benchmark - April 19, 2025

[scatman]

Made it out yesterday and completed an 11.2 mile hike to the summit of the Dude Benchmark. The Dude sits on the northern ridge of City Creek Canyon with a lot of ups and downs to get there. Not much for wildlife on this one. I did see a hawk flying down below me at a good distance, and I saw a spotted towhee too, but I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of it. I heard some chuckars, some chickadees, and some turkeys, but I never saw them.

As far a my camera rotation is concerned, it was the Canon Rebel XTi's turn. It has a 9.8 MP sensor and was released in 2006. This camera is a special one to me. It was the first digital EOS that I bought, and it also happens to be the camera that I dumped in Yellowstone Lake on a canoe trip. I let it dry our for over a year before it was able to take pictures again. Besides my Sigma Zoom lens and the tripod, I also hauled up my wide angle Sigma zoom to get some far reaching landscape shots.

The wildflowers are still not at there peak yet, but there were some, spring parsley being the most abundant. I did run into my first glacier lilies of the year though.

Here are some shots of my hike:


Started at the Ensign Peak Trailhead for this one


Shrubs budding



Balsamroot is doing well down low


Passing by Ensign


I call this - Moon over Ensign


First stonecrop of the season


Not a lot of phlox on this hike


I'm heading up and over these two hills to get up to the cell phone towers on top


Approaching the second hill


This guy was following me, and when we reached to top of the second hill he dropped and did twenty. Tired me out just watching
him. @Bob, I'm going to need you to drop and do twenty in the Gallatin's in August at each break.


Reaching the towers


Now time to just head along the ridge to the Dude. The Dude Benchmark can be seen at center right of image. It looks a lot closer
than it really is. At least it did to me.


An old Jeep road makes its way across the ridge. I'll be taking a right ahead. The Dude in the upper right hand corner of the image






Lots of puddled ice along the ridge. It was 32 degrees when I started out at the trailhead.


We'll pretend a mule left this.


Making some distance from the valley. The road you can see stretching south is 700 East.


Spring parsley kept me company the entire way


Not a very good shot, but you can just make out the hawk flying below


First glacier lily, with a bee to boot!


Fairly typical of the old road bed


Some vetch. I didn't see a lot of this either.


Is the Dude getting any closer? My left knee wishes that it was.


Small patches of snow in the scrub


The Dude ahead, with a couple of hills to go before reaching it


Looking back the way I had travelled along the ridge


Woods Cross below and Antelope Island in the distance


Nice shot of the backsides of the Avenues Twin Peaks that are a favorite, quick go to for me.


Looking over at the initial climb up the Dude


And beginning the climb


The summit of the Dude on the right


View up the Wasatch towards Bountiful and Farmington


Okay @Outdoor_Fool, is this coyote or cougar? The lens cap is a 67mm one.


Type of vetch maybe? I liked the color.


Approaching the end of the old Jeep road near the summit of the Dude


The summit of the Dude Benchmark ahead. It appears that there is a dude on the Dude.


View down towards the cool hilly formations in City Creek Canyon


And the crane that they have set up to rebuild the water treatment plant in the canyon


One of three benchmarks on the Dude


View down City Creek Canyon


View east towards Burro Peak and the Session Mountains from the summit of the Dude


Second Dude benchmark


View west towards Antelope Island


The Dude abides!


The setup


I then popped on my wide angle (8-16mm) lens for some shots.



Another look east at Burro Peak, with some of Black Mountain Ridge it the shot too, along with the Sessions


View down City Creek Canyon wide angel style, with the Oquirrh Range way off in the distance.


And one for @Rockskipper wherever she may be.


Then it was time to put on the zoom lens and get some shots.



The third benchmark


And some Wasatch Mountain Club hikers heading for the Dude, with Frary Peak in the distance.


My lunch - some wheat thins, salt-n-vinegar almonds, some habanero cheese, and a fig bar.


Starting back down.


Another Avenues Twin peaks shot with a slightly different perspective


Firearms regulation sign down


View of Black Mountain Ridge with some afternoon sun shining on it. Summit of the Dude in the upper left


Only spring beauties that I saw


Up another hill


Back in some open terrain


@TractorDoc, what do we have here?


View up City Creek Canyon


One last hill to climb


More arrowleaf balsamroot


Common storksbill


Ensign Peak below on my return


A bird egg on the trail. I moved it off-trail.


Back at the Jeep! Two weeks a row in the Jeep. I might need a tune up or a tire rotation after all the miles.


Combo pizza this wee for dinner. Can you tell which half is mine?


And a Cross Fever amber ale from EPIC Brewery to go with my half of the pizza.


The End.

 

[regehr]

love it! Dude is one of my favorite spring hikes. and as often happens, we were sort of within sight of each other, I was making a quick trip up to the shoulder of Little Black Mtn yesterday.

it looks like you followed the old jeep road all the way to the top, have you tried the much fainter route the goes a bit lower down on the City Creek side? I like it because it passes just over the top of some of those nasty conglomerate cliffs.

 

[TractorDoc]

@TractorDoc, what do we have here?

Looks like part of an old carburetor. . . maybe from one of the old jeeps that used to use the jeep road.

When was the last time jeeps/vehicles used the road?

Great Hike! You are going to be in superb condition to do some Gallatin Ridge walking.

I'd guess that your pizza is the side with all the onions. Then again maybe you like black olives. If I had to pick a side to eat I'd go with the olives as it actually looks. . . cooked.

 

[wsp_scott]

3 USGS benchmarks, what's the story with that? Not even different agencies/surveys?

Looks like a good day, I'd kill for starting a dayhike with 32 degrees, KY has been in upper 70s/lower 80s this week

 

[regehr]

When was the last time jeeps/vehicles used the road?

it was probably more than 10 years ago, but not much more, that I last saw a jeep near dude peak. no idea if this was legal or not. I also used to see dirt bikes up there, but haven't for at least a decade.

on one of the sub-ridges descending to City Creek from its north ridgeline there's a track bashed through the scrub oak by an ATV that was fairly fresh when I first started using it as a trail probably 20 years ago. it has largely grown back in by this point.

 

[scatman]

love it! Dude is one of my favorite spring hikes. and as often happens, we were sort of within sight of each other, I was making a quick trip up to the shoulder of Little Black Mtn yesterday.

it looks like you followed the old jeep road all the way to the top, have you tried the much fainter route the goes a bit lower down on the City Creek side? I like it because it passes just over the top of some of those nasty conglomerate cliffs.

Hey, I zoomed in on you over the canyon with my Sigma lens.

You are going to have to show me where this fainter route is located. Where does it meet the road down in City Creek? And where does it pop out on top of the ridge? Those conglomerate cliffs are pretty cool.

 

[scatman]

Looks like part of an old carburetor. . . maybe from one of the old jeeps that used to use the jeep road.

When was the last time jeeps/vehicles used the road?

Great Hike! You are going to be in superb condition to do some Gallatin Ridge walking.

I'd guess that your pizza is the side with all the onions. Then again maybe you like black olives. If I had to pick a side to eat I'd go with the olives as it actually looks. . . cooked.

I'll have to go with @regehr's response to when vehicles were allowed up top. I think I first went to the Dude about eight years ago, and I've never seen a vehicle up there. There did used to be signs along the old road that have now fallen down or were pushed over by someone or something.



My side of the pizza was the one with all the goodies. Those are kalamata olives. Yum!

 

[scatman]

3 USGS benchmarks, what's the story with that? Not even different agencies/surveys?

Looks like a good day, I'd kill for starting a dayhike with 32 degrees, KY has been in upper 70s/lower 80s this week

I was wondering why there were three of them too. Maybe change in datums over the years? NAD27, NAD83? The dates on all three said 1950.

We had one 80 degree day, and then a cold front moved in and we got more snow. Looks like this week will be in the mid to upper sixties.

 

[scatman]

it was probably more than 10 years ago, but not much more, that I last saw a jeep near dude peak. no idea if this was legal or not. I also used to see dirt bikes up there, but haven't for at least a decade.

on one of the sub-ridges descending to City Creek from its north ridgeline there's a track bashed through the scrub oak by an ATV that was fairly fresh when I first started using it as a trail probably 20 years ago. it has largely grown back in by this point.

I did see two dirt bikes up by the cell towers on my way back down.

 

[regehr]

You are going to have to show me where this fainter route is located. Where does it meet the road down in City Creek? And where does it pop out on top of the ridge? Those conglomerate cliffs are pretty cool.

it's only a short section near the top but it is delightful, you can see it in google earth as it passes the tops of the cliffs at 40.830605° -111.840816°

if we keep having cooler weather I'd be happy to visit it sometime soon!

 

[Outdoor_Fool]

Hard to say without being there but my guess is coyote. The hairs in the scat look more like small game fur (rabbit or hare) than mule deer. But I'd take all this guesswork with a grain of salt (and some lime and tequila).

 

[scatman]

it's only a short section near the top but it is delightful, you can see it in google earth as it passes the tops of the cliffs at 40.830605° -111.840816°

if we keep having cooler weather I'd be happy to visit it sometime soon!

Neat little section, thanks for pointing it out. I'll have to check it out the next time I head to the Dude.