UN 9434, UN 10626, UN 10854, & Cottonwood Benchmark (10,119) by Brian Schultz Wednesday July 27, 2022

UN 9434:
Roundtrip mileage: 0.75 miles from CR 84
Elevation gain: 300'
Start to finish: 40 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

From CR 84 south of Tabernash, Tim and I drove northeast a short distance to FR 126 and parked. We began at 7:45 AM and bushwhacked to a small pile of boulders comprising the summit highpoint. They don't get much easier than this. We returned at 8:25.

UN 10626:
Roundtrip mileage: 2.0 miles from CR 84
Elevation gain: 595'
Start to finish: 1.5 hours
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

We continued on CR 84 to the Meadow Creek Reservoir and found an old road to start at. This road is difficult to spot from the main road but it's just south of another dirt road leading to a camp area. We began at 9:15 AM on the old road, which was very overgrown and had lots of deadfall but was easy to follow. The upper slopes opened up after we departed the road and the remaining distance to the summit was an easy stroll over lesser deadfall. We returned to the truck at 10:45.

UN 10854:
Roundtrip mileage: 2.1 miles from CR 84
Elevation gain: 335'
Start to finish:1 hour 10 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

We continued again on CR 84 and parked at a road junction northeast of the summit. We began at 11:30 AM. The road was handy to follow as it curved west and then south toward the summit. When the deadfall got to be annoying to step over and around, we left the road and bushwhacked through the trees directly to the summit. This worked out very well and we returned the same way before catching up with the road further north. We were back to the truck at 12:40.

Cottonwood Benchmark:

We drove back to US 40 and drove north to CR 55. A left turn (west) on CR 55 brought us to Cottonwood Pass and then a left turn of FR 253 and its winding road brought us to another road just south of the summit. This road was not gated so we simply drove up to the summit (photo 1, photo 2). Pretty easy summit to claim.