There is NO SITE to camp at where the Standup trail meets Bean creek trail. The Greentrails map we had said there was, but we (6ppl) looked thoroughly and didn’t find any site.

It was smoky, so it was only us and one other group staying overnight at the meadow below Navaho Pass on Saturday night. Top right and bottom left photos are from the meadow area. All was as expected with the trail, including two site options south of the Stafford/Standup junction. Lots of chipmunks and antlion traps.

On Sunday we made the quick trip up to Navaho Pass from the meadow, then got full packs on and headed along the Standup trail (steep, see middle photo). We were going to spend a second night out, at the standup/bean junction, but as previously mentioned, no site there, just steep hillside and rusty remains of some sort of stove thing. So we hiked out and spent the night at home, which was a really good thing considering air quality got into the “very unhealthy” range by the time we could check it. Ate some thimble berries on the way out, during the first/last mile where the trail is a bit overgrown and closer to the river.

The road to the standup trailhead was a bit much for our Prius, so that car was parked half a mile
to a mile from the trailhead before the big bumps, but the Subaru made it. (We did a car shuttle thing)

Lotta trails covered in this obvious-choice 15 mile loop.

Beverly Turnpike - TH accessible in my Honda Fit. I only scraped once in and out, and in the same place both times.

I had this idea to do this loop to get full continuous Stuart Range views without having to summit or scramble anything. Checked the cloud base forecast... 17000! supposdly. lol

Arrive to the inside of a ping pong ball. Extremely poor visibility all Saturday. I think this loop would have given me generous servings of what I was looking for, but not this time. So it became about the rocks (many wonderful bright colors, polished in the rain) and the flowers, which are many in bloom but somewhat bowed with the weight of the water on them.

The paths listed were all in decent shape, a couple blowdowns here and there, no major diversions. Except:

Entering and exiting the bowl north of Earl Peak (I am calling it Earl Basin), by way of Volcanic Neck and Wrong Turn respectively, is to switchback up unstable gravel dunes. I felt the descent eastward was shorter than the ascent at Wrong Turn so I would do this loop in the same direction if I did it again. Earl Basin is also the most difficult to navigate of this entire loop. There isn't any scrambling and rare small blowdowns, and it's not exactly brush you're fighting, it's that the trail tread is often heavily obscured by-of all things-persistent sprouts growing up just the same in the path as they would anywhere else, making it slow-going at times to choose which way seems most likely right, based mostly on vibes and somewhat on the slope. There were some pretty steep drops above and below the trail at times in this section, so sticking to the path is important. There was a cairn for the junction to head north on Hardscrabble but I did not actually see the path to do so.

The entry to Earl Basin from Volcanic Neck has a lingering snow drift in it that is carefully passible on the sides but a rather sheer drop down its face.

I abandoned the plan to summit Navaho and camp at Navaho pass due to weather and head downhill for better shelter.

In the rain, look out for what i think is Serpentinite all over the place. Deep olive green.

I didn't hike the Scatter Creek trail but to the site of the old Stafford Lookout instead (at about 4,000 feet) so this report is for the road, not the trail.

There was no snow on the road up to the trailhead.

The road itself is in the same condition as last year - one lane with a few spots to pull over/pass, a solid roadbed, and a few big water swales that will require a high clearance vehicle to get over (you can park where the turnoff and walk the mile or so to the trailhead if you don't want to drive this).

last year, there was a small, but low overhanging tree you had to navigate under/around but that's gone now.

My bestie wanted to go backpacking over the weekend, and I wanted to avoid the grey weather on the West side and also avoid crowds, so I chose an obscure trail in the Teanaway area. As it turns out, I didn’t have to choose SUCH an obscure trail… Even when we dipped into more popular areas (Navaho Basin, Bean Creek) it really wasn’t crazy busy. We ended up doing a pretty epic route- 22 miles in two days with tons of ups and downs and two peaks bagged. There was a nice breeze throughout so it wasn’t too hot, but it was nice and sunny. This area is kind of dry, but with a little planning and mindfulness, the water situation is very doable.

The fourth picture is our route on Gaia… The dark blue is the first day, and the light blue is the second day. Before anyone gives me any grief- the green track is from a SNOWSHOE trip up to Navaho Peak earlier this year… I don’t cut switchbacks like that when the trail is visible. I also circled 3 of the key water sources you’ll want to keep in mind if you’re going up in elevation. There was plenty of water on the lower part of Standup Creek Trail, but after that there was NO water in the areas between the three spots I marked. So make sure you fill up there. Thankfully, everywhere I thought there would be water based on looking at Gaia did have a usable stream so we were able to be strategic about it.

Standup Creek to Bean Creek Junction:

The road to Standup Creek Trailhead has some pretty big dips that require a high clearance vehicle. My subaru did great, but if you have a lower clearance car there’s a spot you can park at the base of FR 9703-112 and you can do about a mile of road walking up to the trailhead. There is some dispersed camping areas around the trailhead, but no facilities (if you want a pit toilet go slightly past Standup to the Stafford Creek Trailhead, which is much more developed).

Standup Creek Trail has some areas that are a little overgrown, but really not too bad. It’s very easy to push through the branches that overhang the trail, not like bushwhacking or anything. Might be a little harder on a bike, but fine for hikers. The trail starts mellow, but ends with a pretty hefty climb, gaining about 3,000 ft. There are multiple easy creek crossings, so plenty of water in this section if you want to go light. A couple minor blowdowns, but nothing difficult. This is a very lightly used trail… it’s pretty unlikely you’ll see any humans here.

At the top, we turned right, away from Bean Creek Trail. Shortly after this turnoff there is a good water source- fill up here, because there is NO water between this and Navaho Basin. Green Trails maps showed a campsite very close to the water source, but I didn’t see anywhere that a tent could conceivably go. If I had brought my hammock we could have made it work, but alas, I did not. So we continued up the switchbacks until we found the second campsite that is marked on Green Trails. Thankfully, this one actually existed (I marked it on the map). In the trees on the ridge right before you descend into Navaho Basin, there’s a nice wooded area with multiple existing tent spots. As long as you don’t mind packing all your water a little ways from the last water source, this campsite is awesome! There are trees so you can get some shelter from the wind, but also plenty of openings to get really amazing views into Navaho Pass/Basin. We saw two trail runners and 3 bikers doing a Bean to Stafford traverse in this section, but otherwise enjoyed delicious solitude at camp.

Campsite to Navaho Pass:

After setting up camp, we grabbed our day packs and headed down into Navaho Basin, and then up to Navaho Pass. This involves a fairly steep descent, then ascent in both directions, but the trail is great here- no obstacles to speak of. There were a couple groups camping in Navaho Basin, and some day hikers around the Pass, but much less crowded than I expected. I guess people concentrate here more so in the spring and fall. Views at Navaho Pass were great, per usual. Plenty of water in Navaho Basin, so we re-filled again before heading back up to camp. Enjoyed sunset, sunrise, and plenty of stars in between the two.

Day 2- Bean/Earl Peak Loop

After enjoying our sunrise on Day 2 we packed up and stashed our packs behind some trees at the Standup Creek junction and set off for some peak bagging. We took the developed trail down into Bean Creek Basin, bypassing the standard route up Earl Peak. This was a great idea, because it let us ascend on the sketchiest and steepest slopes… I hate coming down steep scree. We filled up our water in Bean Creek Basin.. Make sure to bring plenty, because it’s 100% dry and exposed after that. The trail up to the ridge is very steep and slippery, but fine going up. We turned left at the ridge and then took turns scrambling up Bean Peak while the other waited with my friend’s dog. Bean Peak is a class 2/3 scramble (according to summitpost.org) and not very dog friendly. I did manage to get up and down ok, but it was at the limit of my comfort zone, and honestly I got a little spooked in a couple places. The views at the top though were out of this world amazing. 360 views of the entire area… so cool! I don’t know if I’ll go up there again, but it was worth it! We saw a couple other hikers around Bean Peak, but then that was it for the humans for this day.

On Gaia we saw an “unmaintained trail” between Bean and Earl Peaks, but it’s really more of a “route” than a trail. You basically just walk the ridge line between the peaks, picking your way between the rocks on the spine.. there was a little bit of scrambling here, but nothing super intense. A faint trail picks back up as you ascend to Earl. Earl Peak also has amazing views, and it was so rad to be able to see basically our entire route and how far we had come! There were some small hawks (kestrels?) swooping around the top, sometimes quite close to us. It was awesome! We went down the standard Earl Peak trail, which has some slippery dirt and scree but is doable.

The rest of the trip back down Standup Creek was uneventful, though it felt LONG after such an intense day! We took a long lunch break at one of the stream crossings, drank tons of water and cooled down a bit.

Absolutely amazing trip!

     Up Stafford Creek, over to Standup Creek, then down Bean Creek (9.4 mi), with a bicycle connection between Bean Creek TH and Stafford Creek TH. Plenty of water and wildflowers. Weather was clear and moderate (~70 deg at 5000’). Good trail (only 4 or 5 easy fallen trees on the upper Standup tr) but with steep switchbacks on the high traverse (up to 6200’) between Stafford and Standup, then between Standup and Bean, dropping about 400' or 500' to Standup creek in the middle. Way trail up Earl from the Stafford & Standup divide.

     The trail to Bean Basin is moderate and popular. The Stafford Cr trail is wide and moderate, evidently built for horses. Saw evidence of a few horses but dust was not a problem. There are large and outstanding, wooded campsites on the Stafford / Standup divide if you bring water. The Standup / Bean divide is rockier, with one smaller campsite.