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 … Read more
Panorama Point, Nebraska, lies at 5,424 feet MSL and is ranked #20 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 23rd highpoint of 2004. Most folks don’t realize that the Great Plains slope up to the mountains, which is how bone-flat Nebraska can be over a mile high near its border with Colorado. One … Read more
Cheaha Mountain, Alabama lies at 2,407 feet MSL and is ranked #35 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 20th highpoint of 2004. Cheaha is unique as it has a campground and restaurant near the summit. The stone summit house is gorgeous. I remember this highpoint because I met a fellow camper that … Read more
Brasstown Bald, Georgia lies at 4,784 feet MSL and is ranked #25 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 19th highpoint of 2004. Brasstown Bald is the southern end of the Appalachin Trail and contains a visitor’s center at the top replete with lookout tower. I would find out later that there’s a … Read more
Kuwohi, previously named Clingman’s Dome, Tennessee lies at 6,643 feet MSL and is ranked #17 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 18th highpoint of 2004. At the time of my visit, the road to the summit was closed at Newfound Gap in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, so I first decided to … Read more
Sassafras Mountain, South Carolina lies at 3,533 feet MSL and is ranked #29 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 17th highpoint of 2004. Sassafras was my third highpoint of the day and another drive-up. Located on the border with North Carolina, the summit is the highest point on the ridge and now … Read more
Mount Mitchell, North Carolina lies at 6,684 feet MSL and is ranked #16 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 16th highpoint of 2004. Mitchell has the distinction of being the highest peak *in the conterminous US* east of the Rockies. At the time of my visit there was a summit lookout tower … Read more
Black Mountain, Kentucky lies at 4,145 feet MSL and is ranked #27 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 15th highpoint of 2004. At the time of my visit, folks were supposed to have filed a liability waiver with the mining company that owns the land. However, my plan was to simply “poach” … Read more
Mount Rogers, Virginia lies at 5,729 feet MSL and is ranked #19 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 14th highpoint of 2004. Not a walk-up, Mount Rogers lies just off the Appalachin Trail (The “AT”) and requires a few miles of hiking to access. I parked at a nearby trailhead after spending … Read more
Spruce Knob, West Virginia lies at 4,863 feet MSL and is ranked #24 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 13th highpoint of 2004. This was a memorable trip because I got to drive unplowed snowy roads for miles and miles before I got to the parking lot where I slept in my … Read more
Hoye Crest on Backbone Mountain, Maryland lies at 3,360 feet MSL and is ranked #32 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 12th highpoint of 2004, and the third of the day after Ebright Azimuth DE and Mount Davis PA. This was the start of an epic week of highpointing my way down … Read more
Woodall Mountain, Mississippi, lies at 806 feet MSL and is ranked #47 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 21st highpoint of 2004. Woodall is a drive-up and since I was packing my mountaineering gear, I decided to make a bid on the north face. It was tough but I made it! From … Read more
Mount Davis, Pennsylvania lies at 3,213 feet MSL and is ranked #33 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 11th highpoint of 2004. Mount Davis despite being over 3k feet is also a drive-up to a lookout tower deep in Amish country. Davis would be my second high point of the day after … Read more
Ebright Azimuth, Delaware (Hey Joe!) lies at 448 feet MSL and is ranked #49 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 10th highpoint of 2004. Although in Delaware, Ebright is really in SW Philly. I spent a few days in upstate in Little Meadows, Pennsylvania where we lived on a century farm in … Read more
Mount Frissell, Connecticut (South Slope) lies at 2,380 feet MSL and is ranked #36in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 9th highpoint of 2004. Mount Frissell is in a cohort of states with Maryland, Nevada, and Oklahoma whose highpoints sadly aren’t at the summit of a mountain, but merely the highest point on … Read more
Campbell Hill, Ohio, lies at 1,550 feet MSL and is ranked #43 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 8th highpoint of 2004. Campbell is on the campus of a vocational school, housing a cosmetology school at the time of my visit. At the time, this was the easiest high point I’d visited … Read more
Hoosier Hill, Indiana lies at 1,257 feet MSL and is ranked #44 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 7th highpoint of 2004. At this point I had retreated from the east coast and spent a couple weeks with my brother Kevin in Columbia, Missouri. A bit lost, I didn’t want to return … Read more
Mount Mansfield, Vermont lies at 4,393 feet MSL and is ranked #26 in elevation among US Highpoints. This would be my 6th US Highpoint of 2004. After the sufferfest of skiing down Greylock the day before, we decided to snowshoe our way to the top of Vermont. This would prove to be an excellent decision … Read more
Mount Greylock, Massachusetts lies at 3,491 feet MSL and is ranked #31 in elevation among US Highpoints. This was my 5th US Highpoint of 2004 and my second highpoint that I skied after Wy’East. Although there was a closed auto road to the summit, we chose to skin up through the woods on a hiking … Read more
Jerimoth Hill, Rhode Island lies at 812 feet MSL and is ranked #46 in elevation among US Highpoints. This was the 4th stop during my cross-country trip with Teewinot and “Nancy.” At the time of my visit, the landowners wouldn’t allow access, and the “acceptable” alternative was this high point on the highway, which is … Read more