Billings Benchmark SE

Billings Benchmark SE (8,960ft) – Highpoint of Capitol Reef National Park

Hiking to the benchmark

Eric and Matthew Gilbertson, October 26, 2015

Matthew and I had just done a 55-mile rim-to-rim-to-rim dayhike in the Grand Canyon and tagged the Grand Canyon highpoint the next morning. After walking back from the lookout tower to the car we started driving north to our next objective, the highpoint of Capitol Reef National Park, Billings Benchmark SE.

The highpoint of Capitol Reef is actually not a local maximum and not a summit. Because the park boundary is set by straight lines on the west instead of watersheds, this means the highest point of land in the park is actually on the side of a hill. It’s on the southeast side of Billings Benchmark.

The view into Capitol Reef

We drove north into Utah, then east to the town of Loa. After filling up gas we went up 72 then turned onto Elkhorn Road. Luckily the snow had not yet fallen to make the road impassable, but it probably wasn’t too many weeks away. The road was dirt but passable to the rental car. We followed the road until we reached Tub Flat on Deep Creek Ridge.

This was an open meadow with excellent views into Capitol Reef, and we parked the car in a stand of aspen off the main road. From there we followed ATV trails downhill to Billings Pass, then left the trail and walked through grass up to Billings Benchmark. From there we cut through the woods down the southeast ridge until we found a “summit” cairn and glass jar register just above a flat shoulder.

We signed in, then hiked back to the car. We car camped there, and this was my favorite campsite of the whole 2-week park highpointing trip.

The next we drove down into Capitol Reef to experience the park, and had a fun time hiking/scrambling the Burro Wash slot canyon.