poison ivy
Well-known member
Our initial plan for our western highpointing trip was to visit the highpoints of Utah, New Mexico & Colorado. but we ended up nixing the backpacking trip to Utah's Kings Peak due to lousy weather at the beginning of our vacation. Instead, we hit the highpoints of Nebraska and Kansas, which I won't bother to go on about since they were just drive ups (got to keep our 'granny status' after all.)
Black Mesa, Oklahoma: July 11
Our first real hike of the trip was the 8.4 mile trip up Oklahoma's 4,973-foot highpoint - Black Mesa. This hike, which only has 650 feet or so of elevation gain, was harder than we expected because the temperature was close to 90 degrees. You know you're in trouble when even the cacti are shriveled and brown.
The first couple of miles of the trail are on very flat ground and what I remember most about the trip, aside from the heat, is that the small bushes along the trail were humming. I don't know what insect lives in those bushes, but boy is it noisy! It was already hot when we got on the trail at 9 a.m. and even the cows wandering the area were attempting to hide under these small bushes that provided little to no shade.
After a few miles, we started switchbacking up to the top of the mesa and I started really suffering from heat exhaustion. My head was pounding and Shaggy said my face was about as red as our rental car. We found one spot of shade near the top of the mesa, so we sat there for a while pouring water over our heads (fortunately, we brought a lot of extra.) Once I cooled off a little bit, we headed across the mostly flat mesa to the summit marker - an obelisk that gives the mileage to points in each compass direction - including 1,600 miles to New York City.
Atop the highpoint, we met a woman from Illinois who was planning to spread some ashes from her husband, who had died a year ago. They started highpointing together and she planned to spread his ashes at each one they hadn't done together. Not wanting to interfere with her intentions, we didn't stay up top very long.
It was a long four miles back to the car - since it was getting close to noon and the little pieces of shade had completely disappeared. Shaggy beat me back to the car by about a half-hour because I was stopping every 15 minutes to spill more water over my head.
Pictures from Oklahoma's Black Mesa can be found here
Wheeler Peak, New Mexico: July 12
I really had to drag myself out of bed when the alarm went off at 5 a.m. so that we could hit the road for the Taos Valley Ski Area to start our hike. You have two choices for hiking Wheeler Peak - a seven-mile round trip hike that was reputed to be very steep or a 14-mile more gradual ascent that actually has more elevation gain. Both Shaggy and I voted for the steeper, shorter option and headed to the Williams Lake trailhead at the ski area. The hike starts at 10,000 feet or so and doesn't gain much elevation in the
initial two-mile jaunt to Williams Lake, which we started at 6 a.m. There were tons of wildflowers studding the trail to the lake, along with great views of the surrounding peaks from small talus fields along the way.
Shaggy called the lake itself "a puddle" because it is rather small, but it is basically enclosed by a ring of high peaks, making for a very pretty setting at 11,500 feet. We stopped for a break and took lots of pictures before heading down the trail to the steep climb to Wheeler's summit, another 1.5 miles away. Shaggy gained another 200 feet of elevation before he started feeling a little queasy - he doesn't do well with altitude. He
opted to wait for me back at Williams Lake, where he spent the morning taking some awesome pictures of the resident marmots and chipmunks.
I was feeling great and headed up the trail, which I had been warned was so steep I would be doing some scrambling. The warning proved not to be true. For the majority of the hike up to the ridge, it was basically like climbing up to Carter Dome from the notch - steep and slow going, but nothing terribly difficult terrain wise. Once the trail pops up to through the trees, you wind through a series of alpine meadows, framed with gorgeous
strands of wildflowers and marauding marmots.
As I hiked up one small rise, I was excited to see the curl of a big-horned sheep's horn right above my head. I was disappointed when that sheep galloped away across the trail and out of sight. However, within five minutes I arrived on the top of the rise to find a whole herd of sheep. They stood there and stared at me for a while before heading off down a steep slope. I didn't care if I made the summit or not after that - I was so thrilled to watch those sheep. I later saw another pair from afar clomping across the summit ridge.
I should mention the views along the trail were just spectacular, as I gained more ground, I was getting increasingly better views of the surrounding peaks. I oohed and ahhed a lot, taking tons of pictures of the beautiful landscape - I never imagined that New Mexico would look so green.
The most difficult part of the hike was the final .3 of a mile up to the ridge, which was a huge scree slope. I had to fight my way up, slipping backwards with about every other footstep. I think I managed to get myself off the path and mired in scree that I didn't even need to be in. I saw one other atop the ridge waving to me as I battled my way up. he was on his way down from the summit and heading off toward Mt. Walter on the other, longer
trail. So when I finally got to the top of the ridge, I was alone on top of New Mexico.
I arrived on the 13,161-foot summit of Wheeler Peak after three and a half hours of hiking, to be greeted by crystal blue skies and a gorgeous series of mountains bumping away from the peak in all directions. I spent about 20 minutes on the summit, signing the register and enjoying the views, before I turned back to head down the ridge.
It was a little challenging getting down the scree field - I ended up doing a reverse crabwalk-glissade type of move, really wishing that I had brought my trekking poles. The trail winding its way down through the alpine meadows really reminded me of the scenery we had seen in New Zealand. Once I made it through the scree, it was an easy hike back down to the car, where Shaggy arrived about 20 minutes before I did at 11:30 a.m.
I have to say that New Mexico's highpoint ranks as one of my all-time favorites (rightafter Mt. Whitney & Katahdin.) it was truly just a beautiful hike.
Pictures from New Mexico's Wheeler Peak can be found here
Black Mesa, Oklahoma: July 11
Our first real hike of the trip was the 8.4 mile trip up Oklahoma's 4,973-foot highpoint - Black Mesa. This hike, which only has 650 feet or so of elevation gain, was harder than we expected because the temperature was close to 90 degrees. You know you're in trouble when even the cacti are shriveled and brown.
The first couple of miles of the trail are on very flat ground and what I remember most about the trip, aside from the heat, is that the small bushes along the trail were humming. I don't know what insect lives in those bushes, but boy is it noisy! It was already hot when we got on the trail at 9 a.m. and even the cows wandering the area were attempting to hide under these small bushes that provided little to no shade.
After a few miles, we started switchbacking up to the top of the mesa and I started really suffering from heat exhaustion. My head was pounding and Shaggy said my face was about as red as our rental car. We found one spot of shade near the top of the mesa, so we sat there for a while pouring water over our heads (fortunately, we brought a lot of extra.) Once I cooled off a little bit, we headed across the mostly flat mesa to the summit marker - an obelisk that gives the mileage to points in each compass direction - including 1,600 miles to New York City.
Atop the highpoint, we met a woman from Illinois who was planning to spread some ashes from her husband, who had died a year ago. They started highpointing together and she planned to spread his ashes at each one they hadn't done together. Not wanting to interfere with her intentions, we didn't stay up top very long.
It was a long four miles back to the car - since it was getting close to noon and the little pieces of shade had completely disappeared. Shaggy beat me back to the car by about a half-hour because I was stopping every 15 minutes to spill more water over my head.
Pictures from Oklahoma's Black Mesa can be found here
Wheeler Peak, New Mexico: July 12
I really had to drag myself out of bed when the alarm went off at 5 a.m. so that we could hit the road for the Taos Valley Ski Area to start our hike. You have two choices for hiking Wheeler Peak - a seven-mile round trip hike that was reputed to be very steep or a 14-mile more gradual ascent that actually has more elevation gain. Both Shaggy and I voted for the steeper, shorter option and headed to the Williams Lake trailhead at the ski area. The hike starts at 10,000 feet or so and doesn't gain much elevation in the
initial two-mile jaunt to Williams Lake, which we started at 6 a.m. There were tons of wildflowers studding the trail to the lake, along with great views of the surrounding peaks from small talus fields along the way.
Shaggy called the lake itself "a puddle" because it is rather small, but it is basically enclosed by a ring of high peaks, making for a very pretty setting at 11,500 feet. We stopped for a break and took lots of pictures before heading down the trail to the steep climb to Wheeler's summit, another 1.5 miles away. Shaggy gained another 200 feet of elevation before he started feeling a little queasy - he doesn't do well with altitude. He
opted to wait for me back at Williams Lake, where he spent the morning taking some awesome pictures of the resident marmots and chipmunks.
I was feeling great and headed up the trail, which I had been warned was so steep I would be doing some scrambling. The warning proved not to be true. For the majority of the hike up to the ridge, it was basically like climbing up to Carter Dome from the notch - steep and slow going, but nothing terribly difficult terrain wise. Once the trail pops up to through the trees, you wind through a series of alpine meadows, framed with gorgeous
strands of wildflowers and marauding marmots.
As I hiked up one small rise, I was excited to see the curl of a big-horned sheep's horn right above my head. I was disappointed when that sheep galloped away across the trail and out of sight. However, within five minutes I arrived on the top of the rise to find a whole herd of sheep. They stood there and stared at me for a while before heading off down a steep slope. I didn't care if I made the summit or not after that - I was so thrilled to watch those sheep. I later saw another pair from afar clomping across the summit ridge.
I should mention the views along the trail were just spectacular, as I gained more ground, I was getting increasingly better views of the surrounding peaks. I oohed and ahhed a lot, taking tons of pictures of the beautiful landscape - I never imagined that New Mexico would look so green.
The most difficult part of the hike was the final .3 of a mile up to the ridge, which was a huge scree slope. I had to fight my way up, slipping backwards with about every other footstep. I think I managed to get myself off the path and mired in scree that I didn't even need to be in. I saw one other atop the ridge waving to me as I battled my way up. he was on his way down from the summit and heading off toward Mt. Walter on the other, longer
trail. So when I finally got to the top of the ridge, I was alone on top of New Mexico.
I arrived on the 13,161-foot summit of Wheeler Peak after three and a half hours of hiking, to be greeted by crystal blue skies and a gorgeous series of mountains bumping away from the peak in all directions. I spent about 20 minutes on the summit, signing the register and enjoying the views, before I turned back to head down the ridge.
It was a little challenging getting down the scree field - I ended up doing a reverse crabwalk-glissade type of move, really wishing that I had brought my trekking poles. The trail winding its way down through the alpine meadows really reminded me of the scenery we had seen in New Zealand. Once I made it through the scree, it was an easy hike back down to the car, where Shaggy arrived about 20 minutes before I did at 11:30 a.m.
I have to say that New Mexico's highpoint ranks as one of my all-time favorites (rightafter Mt. Whitney & Katahdin.) it was truly just a beautiful hike.
Pictures from New Mexico's Wheeler Peak can be found here
