Take the Out There high point challenge!
I’m pretty much making this up, but I think it’s an interesting idea for all you hikers out there. I’m daring you to take the regional highpoint challenge.
So what is it? It goes something like this:
Our “region” includes Oklahoma and all the adjoining states. Those include Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas and New Mexico. The goal: Go to all the state high points and take a picture of yourself there. If you bag all the high points, you’ve successfully completed the challenge.
The good news is that bagging them won’t require any special tools, gear or climbing skills. Each high point is a walk-up. But some will be more challenging than others.
Here’s the high points:
Arkansas: Magazine Mountain, 2,753 feet. Basically a heavily wooded hill in northwest Arkansas. Looks beautiful.
Mount Elbert
Colorado: Mount Elbert, 14,433 feet. The second-highest peak in the lower 48 states. Good trail to the top, but a long and very tiring day fraught with altitude issues. Hike it the summer, but start early to avoid lightning. During late fall through spring, stay away unless you have winter mountaineering skills and gear.
Mount Sunflower
Kansas: Mount Sunflower, 4,039 feet. The funniest high point of the bunch. It’s just a high point on a flat plain in west Kansas, with a pretty humorous marker showing the spot. Looks like you could drive to it.
Missouri: Taum Sauk Mountain, 1,772 feet. Similar to Magazine Mountain. From photos/reports I’ve seen, it looks like a high, tree-covered hill with nice views. Easy day hike in southeastern Missouri.
Wheeler Peak
New Mexico: Wheeler Peak, 13,161 feet. Three routes to the top, all lengthy. The shortest, from Taos, is the steepest. The other two, from Red River, are more gradual but long — 16 and 20 miles, respectively. Follow the same rules I mentioned about Mount Elbert, but add higher avalanche danger during the months between late fall and late spring. Watch out for altitude sickness.
Black Mesa
Oklahoma: Black Mesa, 4,973 feet. A decent day hike, not too lengthy, scenic in a rugged, semi-arid way. Isolated, as it sits in the far northwest corner of the Oklahoma Panhandle.
Guadalupe Peak
Texas: Guadalupe Peak, 8,749 feet. A healthy hike with some exposure and mild altitude issues in west Texas. Looks gorgeous, but very remote so take backcountry precautions.
Are you up to the task? I’ll confess to only having bagged two of these. I’d be interested to know if anyone else out there has bagged all of them and hear their thoughts.
Bob Doucette
bdoucette@opubco.com
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Comments
Wow! Looks like you all have been around some. I highly recommend Wheeler Peak. You can check out a trip report I made on this blog by typing in “Wheeler Peak” on the search function. If you can do Longs, you won’t have any problem with any high point on this list, that’s for sure.
Bob
We have climbed 2 of these as well…Mt Wheeler and Guadalupe Peak…awesome climbs. Have these other peaks on our list as well.
This is great! My husband and family love to hike.
We have been to some of the locations.
Mt. Magazine in Arkansas is awesome. There is a very nice Lodge near the peak of it and some very nice camping sights. We have hiked from the lake to the peak of the mountain (11 miles and 1500 ft to 1800 ft vertical). It has good veiws of cliffs but the summit is tree covered with no view. It is a nice hike mostly under the cover of the tree’s and is especially nice when it is warmer but not hot. I would NOT recommend fall when leaves are falling. They get very slick on the rocks, and it is dangerous.
We have never done Mt Elbert, but would like to. We have hiked Long’s Peak and Spanish Peak’s…. Wow! They were very worth the time.
Kansas…. That is very funny. My husband and I were both raised in Kansas and we have driven all around the highest point, but never actually stopped and looked at it.
We have that on the list of to do’s now. LOL
Taum Sauk in Mo. We live in Mo now and that was on the list of things to do as soon as we moved here. It is an easy hike, most anyone could do it. It crosses some pretty area’s to look out, but the peak is all covered in tree’s. It was a little disappointing for us who like the peak to have a nice panoramic view.
Mt Wheeler, New Mexico, and Mt. Guadalupe, Texas we have never been to but they look interesting. We are talking about putting these on the vacation list to see if we can bag them all.
Thanks for sharing.
Brian and Cheryl Frank
Webb City, MO