Ute Benchmark (11,490) & Saxon Mountain (11,546) by Brian Schultz Thursday August 22, 2019

Roundtrip mileage: 7.5 miles from Forest Road 712.2F (near Idaho Springs)
Elevation gain: 1,670'
Start to finish: 3 hours 35 minutes

With the weather forecast looking good for the morning and an expected short day on the peaks, I didn't feel a need to start early. I drove from Dillon to Idaho Springs, turned up Highway 103, and then right on CR 130 (South Spring Gulch road). After three miles of good road (with South Spring Gulch road eventually turning into Lamertine road), the road becomes a rough 4x4 road. I slowly bumped along the road for 3.2 miles until reaching a fork in the road and parked just off the road with barely enough room for another vehicle to pass by. I began at 10:20 AM on FS 712.2F (the right fork).

This road soon came to a junction of multiple roads. It was a bit confusing at first but once on the correct road I continued on to my departure point from the road at Ute's northeast ridge. Thus began an easy bushwhack and I arrived at 11:10 on the summit. Or so I thought. There was a benchmark here and a tall stick seemingly marking this as the summit but the true summit was obscured by an evergreen just to its left. The higher actual summit has an older benchmark. I wonder how many people miss this higher point thinking the lower benchmark is the summit?

I stayed less than 15 minutes and made a beeline down the north slopes to the road again. This was a handy shortcut to save some mileage but it wasn't as easy or fast as the northeast ridge. At any rate, the road goes nearly to the top of Saxon's summit. I cut up from the road toward the summit and scrambled up the summit boulders to the top, arriving at 12:20. This was fun scrambling but I only stayed a few minutes because the skies were suddenly showing signs of rain. When it started sprinkling lightly I put on my rain jacket and pack cover, and just like that, the rain stopped until I got back to my truck at 1:55. Then it started up again so good timing for me. These peaks wrapped up my Colorado climbing for 2019.