5/26/2025 Route: South slope ridge Posted On: 5/26/2025, By: wineguy Info: Beautiful day in the San Juans for an early season 13er. Snow mostly avoidable, except at stream crossing and near summit. I carried snowshoes and gaiters, which was a total waste. Per WildWander's TR, crux for early-season ascent is the stream crossing, but I managed it without wet boots or putting on my sandals. The "route description" for Bennett on this site needs some clarification. It shows the round-trip distance as 3.5 miles, but reading the description suggests this is the one-way distance. I short-cutted the ATV track, and still showed about 5.5 miles round-trip on two separate devices. My travel time and experience says this is about right. More importantly, the route description does not mention the possible gate closure over 8 miles from the TH. If trying this summit when the gate is closed (my experience last month) expect over 21 miles round-trip. |
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4/24/2025 Route: South slope ridge Posted On: 4/23/2025, By: wineguy Info: Road gated about 7 miles from trailhead. Route description says fun hike in winter or summer. This is only true if you want to add 14 miles round-trip to route description. |
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6/19/2024 Route: South slope ridge Posted On: 6/19/2024, By: DixieFlyer Info: Bennett Peak is definitely in summertime condition -- my feet never came close to touching snow. The road to the TH is in great shape. |
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5/26/2024 Route: South slope ridge Posted On: 5/26/2024, By: HikerGuy Info: Snow-free, dry from bottom to top. Couple of damp spots in the lower meadows. 4.61 miles and 2,032 feet. |
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5/23/2024 Route: South slope ridge Posted On: 5/29/2024, By: MKwhite45 Info: Road dry to TH. Took the road up to the saddle between sheep and Bennett. I wanted more mileage vs going straight up. 8 miles 2200' gain. Most of the snow I encountered I believe has melted now. |
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10/15/2023 Route: South slope ridge Posted On: 10/16/2023, By: hr011242 Info: Dry as a bone. Summit reggie needs a new pen! |
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7/1/2023 Route: South slope ridge Posted On: 7/2/2023, By: dolfh Info: The road to the trailhead is 2wd with just a few bumps. Trail 702 runs downhill for a hundred yards from the trailhead before crossing a creek. Difficult to keep footwear dry on the creek crossing. There are several areas of mud and running water to navigate around on the way up to the Bennett Peak / Sheep Mountain saddle. There is also a small herd of cattle in the area. The ATV road that goes to the Bennett Peak summit was dry. |
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6/17/2023 Route: Approached from west, gained ridge Posted On: 6/17/2023, By: Reg0928 Info: Parked at a campsite west of the peak and walked the road from there. Used the roads to gain the ridge. Route was dry with no snow |
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4/9/2023 Route: South slope ridge Posted On: 4/10/2023, By: Marmot72 Info: W San Francisco creek (north access from Del Norte). This is the ATV trail, but it has a few downed trees blocking at intervals. Someone had skied in last few weeks and that track helped for the first mile and a half. After that, the snow was deep and unsupportive. Between 10,200 to 11,000, I was postholing anywhere knee to hip for 20-50 yards at a time....slow going. At and above treeline, good sastrugi forming. Above 12,600, the snow is mostly avoidable. Should make for a really nice, quick hike in a few weeks after more thaw/freeze cycles make the trees passable. |
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7/26/2022 Route: South slope ridge Posted On: 7/26/2022, By: zootloopz Info: Lovely and easy class 1 hike. Easy dirt road drive to the TH. Cute cows. Nice flowers. What's not to like? |
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5/29/2022 Route: Windy+Pintada+Bennett Posted On: 5/29/2022, By: supranihilest Info: Entire area is in summer condition. The climb of Bennett's north face from Pintada sucks, probably better to go west past the little lakes and up the north ridge. |
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11/10/2019 Route: South Fork Trailhead Posted On: 11/11/2019, By: drop_bear Info: Not much snow to speak of. Some snow/ice near the beginning of the trail that is melting out. Small, mostly avoidable patches past treeline. Did it in trailrunners with no traction. The road was a bit icy heading down into South Fork, but after that it was clear and I was able to make it all the way to the trailhead. 1) South slopes 2) Looking back towards Sheep Mt. 3) SE Slopes |
