Udink.org – Page 7

April 11, 2026

I completely disregarded the 30% chance of morning showers and 70% chance of afternoon thunderstorms for this hike, and I’m relieved that it paid off. I almost didn’t go at all but I didn’t want to experience that regret that often happens when I cancel plans due to forecasted weather that never materializes. I’ve had Spring Bench in mind as a destination for about a decade but the chance of rain made me rethink my approach. I’d noticed a couple of brush corrals there in the sat imagery and had always planned on walking in from the north along a rough two-track road. But this weekend I was looking for a hike with good elevation gain and paved road access and I realized I could possibly make this work starting from below in Nine Mile Canyon. I made my usual sunrise start, parking at the mouth of Blind Canyon and immediately hiking up the steep hillside on the east side of the canyon in order to get above the first cliff band. I turned up-canyon and followed that level for a short while until reaching the only weakness in the second cliff band that’s just barely possible to climb thanks to a rock pile I’d built 10 years earlier while hiking to a different spot. After that my route diverged from the earlier route and I headed toward the top of a dryfall in a small side canyon off Blind. It was easier getting to that point than I was expecting.

Starting the hike just before sunrise

First light on the ridge

Butte with a small natural arch

Rocks I stacked 10 years earlier

Above the second cliff band

Above the dryfall

Above the dryfall there were a couple of places where I was uncertain whether the route would go. Surprisingly in this middle section I saw some cow pies and tracks, and a few axe-cut trees, both indicating that there must be an easier way into this part of the canyon but I can’t figure out how or where. The places I was concerned about getting above some more cliff bands turned out to be pretty straightforward. I soon found myself with an easier traverse of some steepish hillsides the rest of the way to the top of Spring Bench.

Canyon above the dryfall

Axe-cut tree

Another cliff band and dryfall

Steep, rocky route around dryfall

Traversing the base of a cliff

Up another level

Easier route above all the cliff bands

Rock pillar

Rock shelter

Argyle Ridge 15 miles distant

More slope traversing

Near the top of the mesa it was pretty breezy but still warm, and there was a clear game trail the last couple hundred yards. On top I noticed several large saw-cut pinyon pines, and would find them scattered all over Spring Bench during this hike. Typically only the largest part of the tree trunks had been removed, leaving a stump and branches. And often the roots of the stumps had rotted away, a sign that they were probably cut a long time ago. The first corral was close to where I topped out and it had two sections of fence to funnel animals into it, which I think might mean it was used to catch wild horses rather than for cattle or sheep. One side of the fence was constructed much like the corral was but the other was made of juniper posts with thin cables strung along. It was unusual that the trees and branches making up the corral were tied together with wire–that’s not something I’ve ever seen in a brush corral.

Game trail just below the mesa top

The final ledge

Top of the mesa

Saw-cut pinyon pine

Brush corral or wild horse trap

Part of one fence

Other fence made of small cables

Cable fence

Corral opening

Strung together with wire

View down the canyon I ascended

Corral from above

From the corral I headed toward the southern edge of the mesa where I checked out a radio tower and the “NINE” benchmark. I’d seen the radio tower from far below on the Prickly Pear Canyon road on a previous trip, and at the time I assumed it was a weather station. Near the tower were stacks of rocks and little survey flags over many of the cracks along the mesa’s edge. I think maybe they’re for keeping track of the movement of those cracks? Which is funny because I could see some big cracks all along the edge of the plateau in Google Earth and I even created a waypoint in my GPS named “Watch out for cracks!” to remind me to be cautious around the rim. I didn’t want to fall in a desert crevasse like Randy’s very close call. From the benchmark I tried taking some photos of distant landmarks at high zoom but the wind was so fierce that I couldn’t hold the camera steady. My hat blew off a couple of times but the chin strap kept it around my neck.

Cactus emerging

Radio tower

Cairn and flag over a crack

Survey tower at the benchmark

NINE benchmark from 1953

View over Nine Mile into Prickly Pear Canyon

Radio tower seen from the benchmark

View toward the Dry Canyon compressor station

Circular structure on a butte

Next I hiked toward the southeast point of the mesa and another brush corral, staying just back from the edge to avoid the wind. This corral was smaller and not built as sturdily. There were also no cans or other refuse around this one, unlike the first which had a few cans lying around nearby. I only briefly took in the views from the point.

Staying back from the mesa’s edge

Dry Canyon compressor station

Brush corral

The only chert flake I saw

Unstable-looking rocks

View down the ridge

Dry Canyon and the Mummy

Daddy Canyon

A storm was hanging out to the south and there were some light and brief sprinkles that hit. I wanted to drop back into the canyon before the weather got worse so I turned around and kept a fast pace directly across the plateau. I encountered a big gopher snake that was all stretched out, apparently trying to soak up what little sun there was. It didn’t move even the slightest bit when I got close with my camera for a photo. The breeze and sprinkles got just a bit heavier as I approached the rim, and down below it calmed considerably. As I quickly descended, the sun came out and it warmed up. While I was about a quarter of a mile from the truck but still a couple of cliff bands higher, I zoomed in with my camera and snapped a photo, not realizing until I got home that a bighorn sheep had been standing on the ridge just above the truck and appeared to be looking directly at me. I finished the hike a little before 1:00 PM and had covered 7.5 miles with almost 1,500′ total elevation gain/loss. There was no significant precipitation until I was about five minutes from home, and I was happy that I’d gone for a hike instead of staying at home and wishing I was somewhere else.

Shortcut across the mesa