Benson Canyon - FS 5005

Benson Canyon Trail starts on the north end of Benson Ridge Road, at a trail sign. It immediately starts descending through the forest, on a dirt two-track with shallow ruts, loose stick debris, loose rocks, and roots across the trail. As of early springtime, it looked like several downed trees had been cleared from a recent wind storm; however, there was lots of debris from the branches still in the trail. Watch out for any sharp logs sticking directly out into the trail that can catch a limb. There are some significant ruts that are a few feet deep during the descent that will be trickier for ATVs to have to navigate and straddle the rut. The trail keeps descending through the pine forest and open grassy meadows. It passes the 5005A spur during the descent in a grassy meadow, then continues descending along the hillside with a big hairpin turn, then along a deep ravine, until it pops out on Upper Rio Penasco Road near some private property.