Black Mesa is the name given to a complex of huge mesas that cover hundreds of square miles in the Navajo and Hopi Nations in far-north Arizona. There are three main mesa bodies of this vast complex, which is the traditional home of the Hopi people. The highest point of elevation on these mesas, and in Navajo County, is a spot elevation of 8,168 feet located about 1 mile east of BM Kayenta (8,120') on Black Mesa's northernmost rim, just south of the town of Kayenta. Apparently the highpoint itself does not have an official name, although for purposes here I have informally called the whole north promontory 'Kayenta Point'.

The Hopi Nation is an enclave within the larger Navajo Nation. The boundaries were set in the late 1800s and naturally, no one was happy. The two peoples coexisted for hundreds of years, with the nomadic Navajo occasionally venturing into the Black Mesas while the Hopi, who generally stayed put, built their towns and tended their farm crops. Whereas the boundaries had been unwritten and mostly visual and cultural in nature, the formalities of drawing lines on a map necessarily meant some 'traditional' Hopi lands would be inside Navajo lands, and vice-versa. Over the years the boundaries have been redrawn and tweaked countless times, more often than not to the satisfaction of the big coal concerns who lease the lands up there for their operations. While it may seem natural for the Hopi to get the lands on top the plateau, thus making the cliffs a natural boundary, in reality this is rarely the case. The north rim of Black Mesa is within the Navajo Nation. There are even little Navajo enclaves within the Hopi Nation. It's bizarre.

Access to the highpoint can be a bit tricky; there seems to be about a half-dozen viable routes, all involving some combination of long remote dirt road driving, locked gates, cliffs and canyons, and potentially very long hikes. The "traditional" route comes in from the southwest, near Lolamai Point on the mesa's north rim, about 5 air-miles from the highpoint. This route involves a fair bit of hiking, but the road access seems to be the most stable. I have used this route on both my ascents, in 1999 with Ken Akerman and Andy Bates, and again in 2004 with my wife Beth, Bill Jacobs, and Barb Lilley and Gord MacLeod.

First Visit, June 2000: Three of us went on this trip: Ken Akerman, who's joined me on other trips, and Andy Bates from Tucson, who needed just this county to complete the Arizona counties. We left Phoenix around noon on Saturday the 3rd for the 6-hour trip to the Kayenta area. Ken was driving his new Isuzu SUV. It's about 3 hours to Flagstaff, another 2 to Tuba City, and another hour after that to our destination, much of it on dirt road. We left US-160 at the Black Mesa conveyor belt area at the junction of Indian Route-41. IR-41 goes up the mesa, at which point we took the dirt road (B Transfer) approximately 14 miles to Lolomai Point, where a smattering of communications towers stand overlooking Klethla Valley. The town of Kayenta was visible to our northeast, with the famous Monument Valley visible beyond Kayenta.

We crossed a fence and trended east until we found a decent vehicle track that led for about 1.5 miles generally east. We passed an old corral, some meadows, then entered the scrubby forest. The road gave out at another fence, which we crossed. At this point we followed our senses, hiking through the forest (and periodic meadows and rocky balds) and staying as close to the northern rim as possible. Soon, we met up with our biggest obstacle, a canyon that needed to be crossed. We had to drop about 150 feet into Yellow Water Canyon and re-ascend the other side. There is no trail but route-finding is generally pretty simple. Once up the other side, we again hiked close to the north rim, crossing three more minor canyons along the way (staying as close to the north rim as possible so as to take advantage of crossing at the main canyon headwall, which usually meant less drop/gain). After the fourth canyon, we came upon a rudimentary road.

That road went southeast about 0.3 miles until it junctioned with a major forest road which doesn't appear on the topo map. This road appears to get somewhat regular use. We followed this road as it went north, then east for a considerable distance (crossing a gate midway). After a while, this road broke out into an open meadow and turned north again. We were now on the main promontory that included Kayenta benchmark and our highpoint. The road went all the way to the north rim, from which we could see the towers at Lolamai way off to the west. To get to the highpoint we followed what appeared to be a dirt-bike track east into the trees, then another few hundred yeards through the trees until we came out to the rim again. This section of the rim faced east, so we knew we were close. Now it was just a matter of hiking through the trees south a few paces until we found the rock cairn at the highpoint, which we did right about 10 am.

We stayed at the summit for about 45 minutes as we congratulated Andy on completing Arizona's counties. Aftre lunch and photos, we started back for the camp. Andy and Ken went west to visit the Kayenta benchmark while I went south along the road. I just retraced my route. All was well until that final major canyon near the start of the hike. I crossed it alright but started to get weary of the heat and the fact I was just plain tired. I stopped a number of times to rest on that final 2 mile push back to the car, finally arriving at 1:30 pm, where I promptly sucked down a gatorade and dumped some ice-water on myself. Ken and Andy arrived about 20 minutes later. We left the area at 2 pm, stopped for lunch in Flagstaff at 5, then drove back to Phoenix, arriving at 8. The net gain of elevation was only about 170 feet, but including the drops and gains incurred by crossing the canyons and the undulating nature of the dirt road, we probably experienced a gross gain (one way to the summit) of about 700 feet.

Second Visit, May 2004: Beth and I planned to tackle this highpoint over Memorial Day weekend, and were joined by three other interested people for the excursion. We drove up to Flagstaff two nights before and spent the previous day (the 29th) hiking and exploring the Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monuments just outside of Flagstaff. We then made our way past Tuba City and up the little highway toward Lolomai Point. At this turnoff, we met up with Gordon MacLeod and Barb Lilley, two veteran hikers and climbers from California who were interested in attaining this highpoint. They knew about our plans and we agreed to meet where we did. Together, we convoyed the 14 or so miles of dirt road to Lolomai Point, arriving about 3 p.m. in cool, somewhat breezy weather. Beth and I set up our tent, with no help from the steady breeze and occasional gusts. We visited with Gord and Barb for a bit, then as darkness settled in, we all got busy getting some sleep. The next morning Bill Jacobs came rumbling up at 6:30 a.m. to join us. Bill's a veteran county highpointer and brand new to Arizona, so he was interested in joining us for this hike, and it was good to meet him in person after 5 years of only knowing him through emails. The five of us convoyed back about a mile and started our hike at a gate near Fir Springs. The gate was unlocked... but a hanging lock on it made us skittish about driving in, so we parked outside and started our hike in about 7:30 a.m.

We walked up a road not shown on the map, and then met up with the route I took back in 2000. There really is no other option that avoids the four significant canyons that cleave the mesa. We all crossed Yellow Water Canyon, then took a break at the next canyonhead. Yesterday's wind was now replaced by perfect conditions: cloudless skies, no breeze, temperatures in the 70s, and dry, dry, dry! We all hiked in a loose clump, people pairing off to chat, but generally Beth, Bill and I were the quicker of the five, while Barb and Gord weren't far behind. When we got to the major road about 4 miles in, we took another break. From here, Beth and I took off way ahead of everyone, but soon Bill caught up. We took another break in the meadow close to the highpoint to let Barb and Gord catch up, then all made our way to the highpoint. Finding the cairn was a bit tricky; Beth, Bill and I split up and I found it, then called everyone over. We arrived about 11:30 a.m. and took an hour lunch break, enjoying the quietness and the rest. Only a handful of names are in the register; I doubt only county highpoint nutcases know about this point. The views out over the rim's edge were amazing, including Monument Valley and mountain ranges in Utah and Colorado.

The hike out went quick. Beth, Bill and I pretty much did the hike as a unit, and we egressed about 3 p.m. to our cars. Barb and Gord were planning on camping another night on the mesa so they took their time. Bill got moving pretty fast, while Beth and I rested then got moving, eventually getting to our hotel in Chinle, where we visited Canyon de Chelly the next day before driving all the way back home. Everything had gone smoothly and I thank Barb, Gord and Bill for being great teammates on the hike.