Mount Sunflower, Kansas, lies at 4,039 feet MSL and is ranked #28 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 25th and last highpoint of 2004. In hindsight it was pretty amazing to do half of the states in a single year, and its bonkers to me that this was over 20 years ago now.
Sunflower was the first and only US Highpoint I visited by airplane – yes you read that correctly. Teewinot and I rented a Cessna 172 in Denver and flew to the Goodland, KS airport and borrowed a car. The car was a beat-up Pontiac Grand Am that had a broken windshield in front of the driver, causing me to lean over to see around it. But hey, free!!
Following the high point I returned to the airport to find it fogged in. I almost gave into the siren song of “it’s clear above” and thankfully talked myself out of the “get home itis” and likely survived because of it. I remember the next morning looking out the hotel window and it being solid fog. It wasn’t until later that afternoon that I made it back to Denver. I was supposed to work at the hospital that day and my boss said in all her years she never had someone call in that they couldn’t fly their airplane back for work!
I somehow skipped highpointing in 2005 and in 2006 my next highpoint would be a year and seven months later to Black Mesa Oklahoma
I love the sunflower sculpture! I wonder how many people “climbed” to the top of the tree trunks to be higher than the highest point?