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The Counties of
New Mexico County Highpoints
New Mexico's
Mew Mexico has 47 peaks above 2,000 feet of prominence. I gained most of my top prominence peaks as a result of my county highpoint project. Only recently have we started in on the other peaks on the list. We have grand plans for the state, including at least two peaks this upcoming summer. The columns below are fairly self-explanatory. The number in parentheses indicates the peak's prominence rank. This list is courtesy of Greg Slayden's www.peakbagger.com site.
L I N K S
New Mexico County Highpoints
John Kirk's New Mexico
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I lived in New Mexico as a small boy while my father was stationed at White Sands Missile Range. I have only the vaguest memories of our time there, and I did not return to the state until 1993 - a span of 23 years. When the highpointing bug hit me, I became motivated to visit the state highpoint, Wheeler Peak, which I climbed together with my brother Chris in 1994. The desire to visit and climb each of the county highpoints did not come to me until 2000, when I visited the easy Lea County highpoint in early January. At the time I had no idea that I would ever finish all 33 New Mexico County highpoints, but I figured I would at least have fun trying.
I made good progress in 2000 and 2001, in which I successfully climbed or visited the midsection of the state. I got the counties along the Arizona border in short order, plus all the plains counties in one long swing. By the end of 2001 I had 22 of the 33 counties completed, and a state completion looked promising. In 2002 I nabbed two more, the five more in 2003. Finally, I finished off the remaining five counties in 2004, finishing on Santa Fe Baldy with my wife Beth on October 9, 2004. It was a thrill to complete the task, especially to do so with my wife.
Since then, I have re-done a few of the county highpoints with Beth, and we have started the task of hiking the highest peaks by prominence within the state. We thoroughly enjoy visiting New Mexico and like to find any excuse to go visit the state.
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