Red Rock Camp

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drm
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Red Rock Camp

Post by drm » April 25th, 2019, 4:04 pm

This is up the PCT on the way to Benson Plateau. Via Herman Ck and the bridge trail it is five miles and 3000 EG. A small dry camp so most people just go for a day hike. But being on a narrow ridge it melts out fairly early so is a good short early season overnighter, and with decent views. I usually want to hike up to where the snow starts but these weekday trips are kind of rushed. I got up as far as Teakettle Spring and there is just small patches there, but probably still a fair amount on the plateau.
rrc 01.jpg
Looks like a trillium but I've seen various things on whether this is a trillium or not
rrc 02.jpg
probably Western Wood Anemone (thanks webfoot)
rrc 03.jpg
trailside camp at about 3100'
rrc 04.jpg
looking across at Nick Eaton Ridge, the cutoff jcns in the broad shallow low point on the left
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Mt Adams
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Woolly Horn Ridge and Tomlike Mtn
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Tomlike and Hood
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Best seat in the house
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I always hang my food even if bears are unlikely, a good habit to get into
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A bit of patchy snow near Teakettle Spring
rrc 11.jpg
Last edited by drm on May 5th, 2019, 4:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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MarkInTheDark
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Re: Red Rock Camp

Post by MarkInTheDark » April 27th, 2019, 2:06 pm

Cool report!

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drm
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Re: Red Rock Camp

Post by drm » May 4th, 2019, 2:17 pm

Forgot to mention that there were just a couple logs down, nothing serious. One might be hard to step over for the short-legged. I've been away for a week doing family stuff.

Webfoot
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Re: Red Rock Camp

Post by Webfoot » May 5th, 2019, 4:48 am

Image
don't know what these are
Looks like https://www.pnwflowers.com/flower/anemone-lyallii

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woodswalker
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Re: Red Rock Camp

Post by woodswalker » May 5th, 2019, 6:58 am

Thanks for the info. Surprisingly, after all these years I haven't been up the Benson. On my list for this spring. Colette Grace

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drm
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Re: Red Rock Camp

Post by drm » May 5th, 2019, 3:59 pm

Benson Plateau can get bad mosquitoes by mid-summer, so best to get up there by some time in June if you can if you are camping. Usually they aren't bad until July, though who knows this year.

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bobcat
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Re: Red Rock Camp

Post by bobcat » May 15th, 2019, 7:44 am

Just FYI, the 'red rock' here is actually a Boring volcano thrust up through the Columbia River Basalts, like Nesmith Point, Yeon Mountain, etc.

Doing work on the 400 Trail below Yeon Mountain after the fire, some trail workers were surprised to be digging into soft red soils and theorized that the intensity of the fire had "burned" the earth that color. No, we were actually digging away at deposits washed down from Yeon, which had its north flank carved off by the Bretz Floods - a conflation of three major geologic events - basalt flows (+/- 15 m.y.a), Boring volcanoes (1.2 million to 100,000 years ago), and the big floods (15,000 - 13,000 years ago).

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