With nice weekend weather predicted, Zach and I planned to get out of the inversion and do a snowshoe. I had found Johnson Benchmark, southeast of Fairfield, which I figured would have great views. Since Johnson on its own didn't give us as much of a workout as we wanted, we added Flattop Butte (south of Johnson) and Don Benchmark (on the way back to Boise) to the itenirary.

We showed up at Johnson at around 8:30am. It was cold and we had just driven out of the fog when we arrived at a saddle on Highway 46. We parked at the saddle with the thermometer reading 13 degrees. The snow was perfect, hard crust that we cruised on quickly with our snowshoes. We really were not sure which mountain was the highpoint, but we followed the ridge. Based on mileage measurements from our GPS watches and knowing it was the highest point around, we correctly hiked the Johnson BM.

The summit jutted out from the rest of the Bennett Hills into the Camas Prairie. The whole prairie was fogged in, so it looked like we were on a penisula. The top had a large rock cairn, benchmark, and the wooden cairn. The wooden cairn that had been utilized for mapping the area was knocked over on the top, but in great condition otherwise. The views of the Pioneers, Smokies, and Soldiers from the top were great. The snow was nearly perfect the whole trip. Round trip: 6 miles, 1000' gain

Next up was a peak I had driven by hundreds of times as a kid, Flattop Butte. It was only about a 10 minute drive from where we parked for Johnson BM. While not a stunning peak, it did offer a steep scramble for us. We parked at a plowed turnoff and headed up without snowshoes. The snow supported our weight. Up high, it was boulder hopping to the summit. Zach took a more challenging route than I did to finish. The summit was a lot narrower than I expected. It was windy and cold on top, we descended quickly after arriving. Round trip: 1 mile, 300' gain

After that we headed back to Fairfield. Between Fairfield and Mountain Home, we stopped at the base of Don Benchmark. Don is a steep peak and we expected to have views of the Trinities, Danksins, Soldiers, and Bennett Mountain from its summit. After a steep 800 foot ascent, we were not disappointed with the views from the summit. It was a nice finish to the day. Round trip: 2 miles, 800' gain

For Johnson BM, we parked on the side of Idaho 46 at the point where it crests Johnson Hill.

For Flat Top Butte, park at the turnoff for the City of Rocks, just north of the peak.

For Don BM, we parked on US 20, due east of the peak.

See the trip reports