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During four days in May of 2002, I toured and visited numerous county highpoints of western Oklahoma, doing 15 new ones in all. I had previously hiked the state highpoint at Black Mesa in 1996 and in 1999. Most of the western counties were pretty simple but a few proved to be very nice, somewhat challenging hikes and orienteering challenges.
After a long day in which I nabbed a peak in New Mexico, two flat ranch highpoints in Texas and raced a large thunderstorm across the Texas panhandle into Oklahoma, I had enough daylight and energy to go get another highpoint, a trivially easy bump in Harmon county. From the town of Erick just inside Oklahoma, I went south on OK-30 about 20 miles. From here I followed a paved road marked by a home-made sign with "Carl Neighborhood" written on it. The road went west and was pretty good for about 3 miles. Vegetation was very lush and green. At about the 3 mile mark, the road quality decreased somewhat. At the 4 mile point, it turned to dirt, then really rotten pavement again. The brush hangs out over the road; no one trims it apparently. It was actually kind of creepy! It seems that no one takes care of the road after a certain point. After 5 miles, this road bends north, and a mile later comes to a rise in the road. The highpoint sits in the front yard of an abandoned home. I hopped a ricketty fence to get into the yard, walked it a bit, then high-tailed it out of there!
I basically retraced my steps into Elk City, where I took a hotel room, just in time as that storm finally came in and dumnped on us pretty heavily. Wildlife was pretty abundant. I saw some turtles on the road, as well as a large rat-like animal called a nutria (I think).
The highpoints of both Custer and Washita Counties are both nearby the city limits of Elk City on Interstate-40. From Elk City, I went north on highway OK-34 about 6 miles to the Roger Mills county line sign, then went right (east) a half mile, then right again (south) toward the Custer highpoint areas. One of the two areas is right on the road, about 500 feet north of an intersection and just due north of a gas compressor plant. Here, I just walked the immediate area. The other area is located at the intersection, on its southeast corner, immediately south of the gas compressor plant. It's a nice little grassy field with mature trees and a barn in the distance. Very pretty; one could take their sweetie for a picnic there, if they didn't mind the gas compressor plant across the way. Nice highpoint- I even snapped a photo!
For Washita County, where OK-34 split north from Interstate-40 on Elk City's east side, I found a parallel road a half-mile east of OK-34, and using my topo map, drove to the flat highpoint area, located just off the road. A house and barn and all sorts of stuff sit at the highpoint, but a tree-lined driveway offers some anonymity to the determined highpointer, such as myself. I kind of jogged up this road and called it good when I knew I was inside the highpoint contour. The highest point itself is not easily determined and I didn't want to waste time or get in trouble seeking out that one point, especially when I was essentially there.
From here I drove on up to the Greer County highpoint on Walsh Mountain. Afterwards it was onto Tillman County.
The Tillman county highpoint is a small but interesting hill of jumbly granite blocks, sticking up about 200 feet above the countryside in southwestern Oklahoma. I came to it from US-62 east of the town of Headrick. Access is actually along a frontage road, not well marked from the main highway. Most people along this road come for the fishing, where an interesting old truss bridge spans the Red River. I saw a bicyclist, too. I parked near an old gate/fence at a gravel pit, and shimmied under the fence. The hike went quick as I skirted the pit, gained the rocky "steps", and made the top after about 20 minutes in warm, sticky weather. Because I might have been on private land, I stuck around just long enough to swig some water before I started back down to my truck. No one ever bothered me.
Canadian County is not far from Oklahoma City, and is named after the Canadian River. I was hoping to see people in toques, hockey sticks and advertisements for ketchup, but no such luck. Just another Oklahoma County, in the middle of Oklahoma.
This was a fast and very easy highpoint done late in the day as I was heading toward Oklahoma City and looking for a cheap hotel for the night. On highway OK-37 in Hinton, I went east 1.5 miles, south 1 mile, east 2 miles, south 2 miles and east 1 mile to a dirt road on my right (south). I followed the dirt road south 1 mile to an intersection with another dirt road on my left (east). To the west was a two-track road not shown on the maps, which led directly over the highpoint. No hiking required. I just drove to it, got out, looked around, and got back in. To get out, I had to drive in reverse the 1/4-mile back out to the main dirt road. The day done, I crashed at a hotel just outside Oklahoma City.
Refreshed from a night's sleep, I started on yet another day of bashing around the Oklahoma countryside. First up, Major County. In the town of Seiling I went north roughly 9 miles on US-281 to what was supposed to be a good dirt road as shown on my maps (the maps are essential to find this road. I found it by relating it to bends in the main highway. No signs are useful). The road was soft sand made mushy after recent rains, so for the 1.2 miles I needed to travel this sandy mush, I used 4-wheel drive, which actually made the trip doable.
I parked at a rise in the sandy road and hopped a fence. I hiked north across a meadow into a thicket of trees and brush up some obvious hills, sometimes squatting down to avoid the chest high brush. I topped out on one small hill, only to see a larger and higher hill about 200 feet to the north. I made this second hill and found Andy Martin's Pepsi-Can register. To me, looking out among the nearby countryside, this hill is definitely the highest of the three possible areas. No question in my mind. The third area is about 200 feet east and is clearly lower; I did not visit it. I returned to my truck the same way, a total hike of about 20 minutes in extremely humid weather; I was soaked.
I came to this one after a scouting mission to Alfalfa County, which I skipped when the weather turned bad and the farmers were out in the fields. So I headed back west; a huge thunderstorm dumped on me for about 20 minutes as I drove to the Woods highpoint area, which was next closest on my itinerary.
From the community of Camp Houston at the junctions of OK 50 and US 64, I
proceeded north on a paved road for nearly 9 miles to a T-intersection. The
pavement ended at about 8.5 miles. (Note: this paved road is a locally
maintained road on the same N-S alignment as OK-50, which ends at Camp
Houston). Four areas mark the HP: 2 in a rough U-shape marked by elongated contours,
and 2 smaller ones about 1 mile to the east-northeast.
From the T-intersection I turned left (west) and drove 2.7 miles to a fork
with a sign pointing to "Cowboy Cemetary/Wares Ranch", which follows the
right fork. I went left instead about 0.9 mile to a road on the left at a
cattle grate. This road trends south and west and passes over the largest
of the 4 highpoint areas. I got out and walked 3 separate areas where the land
seemed to rise, coinciding with the "fattest" parts of this single
elongated contour. For the westernmost area, I parked where the road started to head south again
and lose elevation, and walked west to a fence line across low grass scrub.
I also walked north a bit to sufficiently cover this area. A windmill off to the north served as a good navigation item.
For the 3rd and 4th areas, I went back to the Cowboy Cemetary junction, and
retraced my route. At about 0.15 miles, just past another fork (stay
right), the road crested on one area. The higher land seemed to be to the
south. The 4th area is about at 0.3 miles from the Cowboy Cemetary junction,
just south of the road. (I found it easier to get them on the way out in order to better orient myself with the various junctions as landmarks). I strongly suspect that the highest area was one of the humps in the
elongated contour with the road over it. All four are easily visited.
There are no fences nor restrictive signs. The roads are good. Nice
views, too.
Afterwards, I went south on OK-50 about 20 miles and took a tour of the Alabaster Caves State Park. It's a 3/4-mile tour through a cave complex, with heavy concentrations of alabaster in the rock. Very nice. The tours are guided and very well done. Highly recommended.
Dewey County was an extremely easy highpoint. After a long day, I was now just mopping up some easy ones along US-60. I had driven down south from the Woods County highpoint up north, and had a nice visit to the Alabaster Caves State Park nearby. I made my way south and started to pick off a few very simple county highpoints, starting with Dewey County. From the town of Vici, I went west about 4.5 miles west along US-60 to the Ellis county line sign. From here, I went south about 2/3 mile to a rise in the road. This is it. The highpoint itself would be on the east side of the road (the Dewey county side). I stepped on a sandy berm and called it good.
Woodward county's highpoint is easily reached from US-60 at the tiny town of Harmon. With map in hand,
I headed north off the highway 2 miles, then west about a half-mile, along good dirt roads, to a small
hill topped with a radio tower. This is the Woodward highpoint. I had to wriggle under the fence, then
make an easy quick run up the small 40-foot hill to the top. Nice views, but I didn't stay long. Back
to my truck and on my way, the entire round trip took maybe 10 minutes. End of Woodward county.
Now for my Woodward story: the county seat is the city of Woodward. In 1993, I made a long road trip
through Texas and Oklahoma to visit my birthplace (Fort Sill, Oklahoma) and other places I'd lived in as
a small child (El Paso TX and White Sands NM). I toured the base at Fort Sill, visited the museum,
bought some shirts, then was on my way. There's only so much to do! Anyway, with still most of the day
to go, I headed somewhat aimlessly to the north and west, and eventually ended up in Woodward for no
other reason than it was the biggest city in that region. So I got a hotel room, had a shower, then
decided to go take in the Woodward night life. I drove downtown and found a somewhat average looking
bar. I figured there'd be locals so I went in. It was a weeknight so it wasn't crowded.
The bar was tiny, probably just 25 feet by 25 feet, just big enough for a bar and a few tables, plus a
pool table. There were just 3 people there: the bartender (a woman), and two guys sitting at the bar.
Of all things, they were transfixed by some Discovery-type TV show showing the birth of a zebra. The
little zebra plopped out, and one of the two guys in the bar turned and said something in dense
Oklahomese that I couldn't make heads or tails of. So I bellied up to the bar, ordered a beer and
watched the show with them. Soon, the two guys left and at the same time, a tiny, weather-beaten old
man came in, sat right next to me and started up with the bartender lady. He was obviously a regular
and she knew him and they started talking. Every other word from this guy's mouth was "m******
f******". It was an adjective, pronoun and anything else he wanted it to be. At first I just minded my
own business. But it was awkward that he sat right next to me. My guess is that was his regular seat,
and I just happened to be in one next to it.
They were talking on about something, laughing, having a good time. Meanwhile I sat there like a lump.
My one feeble attempt to add to the conversation was met with "This don't concern you" by the old man.
Oh well. I figured I better just shut up! But the bartender lady was cool and she finally asked me, in
a friendly way, my name and story (after all, I was a stranger to them. I'm sure she intended to try to
make me feel welcome somewhat). I mentioned about my visiting my birthplace in Fort Sill and traveling
throughout. She then asked how Woodward fit into all of this. I just said I stopped here because it
was the only town in boldface on the map, so I figured it'd have a hotel. For some reason the cudgy old
man seemed to like my responses and immediately opened up to me.
Whatever I said worked. All of a sudden he became very friendly and proceeded to tell me his whole life
story over the next 4 hours, salted liberally with "m-f" and "sh" and "g-d m-f" and variations on that
theme. Utterly fascinating. He told me about the big tornadoes they'd had in Woodward, his time in
Mexico, his time as a truck driver. The bartender lady was nice and sort of helped the talk along as
needed (I'm sure she'd heard it all before). Needless to say I got a Ph.D. education in northwest
Oklahoman lore and culture from its most esteemed professor! It was nearly 1 am when we all had to
clear out. It was truly one of the most unique nights I'd ever experienced, something that couldn't be
planned or expected. It sure beat staying in the hotel room. I left the next morning feeling pretty
jazzed. There's my Woodward story! Now to a real hike in Roger Mills County.
After finishing off Roger Mills County, I had just enough daylight and energy to visit one more county for today, Ellis County.
Some county highpoints are just plain strange, like this one. Ellis county's highest areas sit near a highway, some railroad tracks, and the highway's overpass of these tracks. For the part along the highway, the "highpoint" is just a single 2,580-foot contour about a mile east of the Oklahoma-Texas state line, right where the highway makes a slight bend to the right (as one is traveling east). I stopped at this bend and got out to walk around, but it sure didn't feel like a highpoint. The highway's roadbed has artifically made the ground higher. In any case, I walked the immediate area and didn't get that warm fuzzy feeling of a successful county completion.
I next explored 3 elongated berms about 1/4 mile south of the highway, flanking the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. These are likely man-made or enhanced, but one hold a USGS benchmark, so I figured if I found the benchmark I could have something tangible to claim for this county. I parked along a ranch road near the train tracks and walked in about a half-mile along the tracks. Periodically I scampered up the steep bermsides to tag the tops. I found the benchmark and it's witness signpost on the far end of one berm; the benchmark's concrete base was exposed and it will probably fall down the bermside soon unless the USGS goes back to fix it. Well, now I felt successful, so I walked back to my truck and got a hotel in the town of Shattuck to the north, the end of another log, sweaty, interesting and fun day.
From Shattuck I traveled north a bit and worked my way for a fun day in the Okie panhandle. First up: Harper County's highpoint. It's a trivially easy highpoint reached from US-412/270 at the Harper-Beaver county line sign. From the sign, I went south about 1.6 miles to a distinct rise in the dirt road. This was the highpoint. All I did was step on the east side (Harper side) of the road. My main concern was to not get too much sand in my Teva sandals. There is a great informative sign at the county line on the main highway (see the left sidebar).
Slapout is the only place where I've ever got into an argument with a gas station attendant. In 1993 passing through the area, I gassed up and went in to pay. No one was at the counter. I called out, see if anyone was around. Finally this woman shows up annoyed as hell, totally bothered to take my money. I should have gassed and dashed.
From here I headed to the Beaver County highpoint.
There are 5 separate 2,970-foot contours marking Beaver County's highest point, all located within 3 miles of one another and 4 of the 5 easily reached by road. From US-83 south of the town of Gray and 2 miles north of the Oklahoma-Texas state line, I went west on a good paved road for 7 miles to another paved road on my left (south). I took that for one mile to a rise in the road. This is one of the five areas. I got out and walked it a little bit. Another area is about 1/4 mile east in an oil field. However, some guys were working there so I decided to go get the other areas first and come back later... maybe they'd be gone.
The three southern areas are found by going south one mile from the first area, then going east about 1.25 miles on a dirt road right on the OK-TX state line. This put me on one area. The next one was another 1 mile east, and the last one about another 0.5 miles, roughly. All three of these areas are flat and all I did was pace a little bit in each. Back to the 5th and final area, the oil workers were still there... so I just went in anyway. Normally oil workers don't care about visitors; for all they know I have some proper business to attend to. The cattle grate was loose and clangy and ensured that everyone heard me drive over it. I parked along a sketchy two-track about 500 feet in and walked east up a rise, gaining about 30 feet. That was that. I drove south into Texas and prepared for two quickie Texas flatties, then back into oklahoma for one more before I left the state: Texas County.
Caption to the photo in left sidebar: This informative monument explains the history of Oklahoma's Panhandle. Essentially, it was a strip of land left unaccounted for after various treaties and congressional acts had set the respective boundaries for Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas. Among other things I didn't know, Texas' north boundary is aligned with the infamous Mason-Dixon line. Anyway, the land was technically without any legal form of governance until Congress attached it to the Oklahoma Territory in 1890. In the meantime it was a favorite place for crooks since they were safe from other jurisdictions out to get them.
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(c) 2002 - 2007 Scott Surgent. For entertainment purposes only. This report is not meant to replace maps, compass, gps and other common sense hiking/navigation items. Neither I nor the webhost can be held responsible for unfortunate situations that may arise based on these trip reports. Conditions (physical and legal) change over time! Some of these hikes are major mountaineering or backpacking endeavors that require skill, proper gear, proper fitness and general experience. |