We started the day in Natchitoches where, the night before, we clebrated Beth's birthday with a great dinner at a local restaurant and toured the city's downtown, which was strung with Christmas lights everywhere. Today was to be devoted to a series of very easy parish highpoints, topped off by a visit to the state highpoint at Driskill Mountain. I had done this already (in 1999) but wanted to take Beth along so she could visit it (and so we could get some decent photos, too). First on the list was the highpoint of Winn Parish, about 25 miles to the northeast of Natchitoches. We got onto US-84 eastbound toward Winnfield, and then (following the map carefully) turned north onto Range Road, across from the Gum Springs Campground within the Kisatchie National Forest. We went north 1.2 miles then turned left and stopped at a gate spanning the road. The highpoint was just a few feet of walking past the gate to a rise in the road. We explored the nearby woods for higher ground, but the cleared area looked highest.

Well, that was easy! One down and four to go. From here we drove into Winnfield then north toward our next objective, Lincoln Parish, very near the state highpoint at Driskill Mountain.