June 27, 2026
I was half-expecting to be sore after the steep hike to Provo Peak the previous day, but I wasn’t. Nevertheless I chose an easier hike for Saturday morning. I hiked to the Packard benchmark, which is a longer hike than Provo Peak at 4.5 miles round trip but only has 1,600′ elevation gain. The benchmark is on the highest point of the ridge between Packard Creek and Cedar Canyon, in the Right Fork of Hobble Creek, but it’s not a particularly prominent or even interesting peak. I only decided to go there because there’s both a geocache and benchmark on top. It was close to 6:30 in the morning when I started hiking. I inadvertently parked in wrong (although most logical) place, a wide gravel pullout right at mouth of Packard Creek, but I didn’t realize until I’m typing this weeks later that the real trailhead was 300 yards farther up road. Twenty minutes into the hike and it was already too warm, and there was no breeze unlike the day before. I’d planned a route that wasn’t at all intuitive on the ground, but with the advantage of an overhead view in the sat imagery I think I pieced together probably the most efficient way.
The route was a mix of cow trails and trailless cross-country travel, through some open meadows, trees, and a bit of dense brush. I was expecting a real thrash through the brush but the bushwhacking was easier than I expected. I only followed Packard Creek a short distance before veering off up a ridge, then up a shallow drainage until the terrain grew steeper and more heavily vegetated.
The ground cover transitioned from lush grasses and plants to sagebrush. As I climbed higher I gained views of surroundings peaks in the distance. I traversed up the hillside north of the peak, then made the steeper and moderately brushy climb to the top of the ridge. It took under two hours to reach the top of the mountain.
The summit was relatively flat and covered mostly in oak brush and trees and a few maples. I first searched for the geocache because I figured the coordinates would be more reliable than those of the benchmark which I’d pulled a Google Earth topo map overlay. I spent a lot of time hunched over, peering under the bushes searching for an ammo box, but couldn’t locate it. Then I tried looking for the benchmark, which is supposed to be buried but with a pile of rocks on top, and while searching for it I found reference mark #1. I barely had enough cell service to get online and check the NGS datasheet to get the bearing and distance between reference mark #1 and the benchmark. I then roughly estimated the bearing (based on what I perceived to be true north) and paced off the distance in that direction and didn’t see a benchmark or rock pile where I landed. I stood in that spot and estimated the bearing to reference mark #2 and paced off in that direction and eventually located the second reference mark, which the geocache was supposed to be next to. I still couldn’t find the geocache near the second reference mark so I returned to where the benchmark was supposed to be and half-heartedly dug in a couple of spots but eventually just gave up. I didn’t want to dig a hole a couple of feet deep without knowing for certain I was even in the right spot, and there was so much margin for error that it seemed unlikely to succeed. I’d been doubly skunked. It had taken me an hour and 20 minutes of searching to finally call it quits.
I left the summit and found a shady spot to have a quick snack and a drink before following my same route down. I had to follow the track in my GPS back through the brush and maze of cow trails in order to stay on the correct route. I stuck to that track with the exception of a prominent trail leading off into a stand of aspen trees where I found a spring and a dry trough. I made it back to the truck in an hour and 10 minutes–less time than I’d spent searching on the summit!
This will probably be my last hike for a couple of months. Sometime in the week after this hike I developed fairly severe pain in my left foot, which I think is a bone spur on my heel and/or plantar fasciitis. It was bad enough that it hurt just walking around at home or in the grocery store. I stopped my daily walking/jogging workouts on the treadmill and haven’t done any hiking in the three and a half weeks since this hike. I still plan on hiking Gilbert and King’s peaks at the end of August, so I’m taking it easy until then, and will attempt those hikes even if I’m not healed by then. I only turn 50 years old once and I want to stand on King’s Peak on my birthday!
Photo Gallery: Packard Benchmark