I was on my last full day of hiking and driving for this particular New Mexico county highpoints trip, making good progress on the various eastern New Mexico counties. The flat plains counties had gone well, and as I worked westward, I started to get back into hilly territory, where the plains slowly give way to the big mountains of central New Mexico. Earlier today I hiked Dog Canyon Overlook, the Eddy County highpoint. I was off that peak by 1 p.m., and after driving back into the Carlsbad/Artesia area, had a small lunch in Artesia, then headed west along US-82 toward the Cloudcroft area in the Sacramento Mountains of Chaves County. Chaves County is mostly flat steppe-desert (Roswell is the county seat), but a small appendage of the county extends southwest into the Sacramento Mountains, giving Chaves County a legitimate peak for its highpoint. By the time I was in the area, it was about 3 p.m., weather holding very nicely.

Near the tiny town of Dunken, I followed state route NM-24 south, eventually catching dirt Cuevo Canyon Road, which went mostly westward into the hills. After 8 more miles I came to the Chimney Lake Road junction, where I turned south and followed Chimney Lake Road to Sunflower Canyon. Normally a sign marks this canyon but today, it was busted and lying in the grass; I had to figure my location by bends in the road and other reference points, but finding Sunflower Canyon wasn't too troublesome. The lands on both sides of the road are fenced, leaving little room to park. I was assuming this was some forest lands but some of it may be private, or leased to local ranchers. In any case, there were no signs against trespassing and no one was around, so it looked safe. One Tree Peak sat back of Sunflower Canyon over a mile, forming the highpoint above the canyon's headwall. It looked like a nicely rounded peak covered in pinon and juniper trees with a bald top.

It was 4 p.m. when I started the hike, hopping the fence and walking east through the canyon, which was broad, mostly open and obviously used for ranching judging by the troughs and salt licks lying about. I followed old tire ruts and made good time, arriving to the base of the peak after about 15 minutes. Then it was a straight shot up to the top, about 800 vertical feet higher. Down low the pinon-juniper woodlands are fairly thick and I had to zig and zag through openings, but toward the top the tree cover lessened into nothingness, just bare slope of low grass. The first half was moderately steep and fairly easy, the last half steeper but still easy, although I went slow.

I arrived at the top at 4:40 p.m., a 40-minute one-way hike, with 900 vertical feet of total gain. The summit was as expected: a smallish hump of grass and some rocks. In the register were the same four names as were in the Eddy County register earlier today, so I added mine. The views were very nice: endless flat plains to the east, lots of hills and bigger peaks north and west. I stayed here ten minutes before moving downward. The hike down was quick and I was back to my truck by 5:15 p.m.. Although it was still light, the sun was now behind the foreground peaks and I wanted to be back onto paved highway before dark, which at this time of year came quickly.

I stayed on the main road as it followed a circular clock-wise route through forest, hills and occasional ranch properties. The drive went well but slow, and it was nearly dark when I finally arrived back on the paved roads near Cloudcroft. I descended the highway down into Alamogordo and stayed there for the night, driving home the next day, the end of a successful trip into New Mexico.