After descending the Grant County highpoint, I drove back west along NE-2 to the town of Ellsworth and the junction of highway NE-27. Ellsworth is a tiny town of about two dozen people but its history is rich, as it was founded as the original "company town" for the vast Spade Ranch in the late 19th century. The Spade Ranch was famous, and somewhat infamous, for its vast land holdings, much of which was simply land belonging to the Federal Government and fenced in illegally by the ranch owners. President Teddy Roosevelt helped put an end to this behavior during his presidency, forcing the ranch to give up the land it did not own. Nevertheless, the Spade Ranch still exists in central Sheridan County and continues to thrive. In Ellsworth there is just a few homes, a nice historical marker (where I got most of this information), and an old general store that dates from the late 19th century that still functions, today as a tourist draw as well as supplying the locals with their basics. There's also a bowling alley in town, I have read.

After my very brief tour of Ellsworth I headed north along NE-27 to a point where the Sheridan highpoint, a big hill called Morton Hill, was visible, roughly 16 miles north of Ellsworth. I pulled off at a point where the highway crested a small rise, due east of the highpoint hill. It was about noon and the weather was holding steady: mostly clear, breezy, generally nice. I walked west up the slope and crossed through a barbed-wire fence, then disappeared over a small hump, and pretty much hiked due west, following an east-west fence line. After gaining for a short bit I made a long gentle drop before ascending again, coming to another north-south fence line. Here I decided to scoot to the north side of the east-west fence, which turned out to be wise since there was a lot of cattle on the south side of said fence. At first they all just watched me then a few started to moo. Often cattle just watch but these guys seemed to get kind of skittish. I deliberately walked apart from the east-west fence to put distance between me and them, but they still got all wound up. In any case, this was just a minor problem. No one seemed to be around and I figured I was fine.

I chose to hike along this east-west fence for the full mile-plus until it petered out west of the highpoint summit. This was mainly due to not wanting to hike amid the cattle but also because it worked well as a handy navigation item. The plan was to get to where this fence ended, which, according to the map, should put me just a few feet northwest of the highpoint hillock. Although obvious on the map, in the field there were endless little hillocks and endless up and down hiking. A previous report had indicated that the highpoint won't be obvious until the very end. With that I just continued on my way, eventually leaving the main herd of interested cattle behind. After about 30 minutes of energetic hiking I was nearing the west edge of this big hill. The fence actually diagonalled to the southwest first for awhile before turning true south. I followed this fence dutifully, at one point descended very steeply into a sharp draw then ascending back out of it (there were no alternative options). Finally, sure enough, I was on top a small bump where I could see the obvious highpoint, just a hundred feet of so away. I squeezed through the fence and made a quick jog to the top. I didn't stay long, jogging right back down. On the hike out I re-spooked the cattle, and once past them, I took a rest amid the grass near a township section marker just sticking out of the ground. Then, shortly, back to my vehicle.

This hike proved to be a little more effort than originally planned. Round trip hiking was nearly 3.5 miles with a net gain of about 300 feet but close to 500 gross feet when the drops and gains are figured into it. It was an enjoyable hike that took me about 75 minutes; it was a bit past 1 p.m. when I got back to my vehicle. So far today I'd hiked four hills gaining three counties, with a total hiking of about 9 miles, so I was reasonably tired. Fortunately I had a couple of easy highpoints for later in the day. But first, I doubled back into Alliance for lunch, a call to my wife, and a visit to Carhenge, of which a photo can be seen on my next county's page, Box Butte County, since its highpoint wasn't interesting enough to commemorate digitally.