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Texas County Highpoints, November 2000 |
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Hansford County
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For the Veteran's Day holiday (three-day) weekend of 2000, I thought it would be great fun to drive all around the northern panhandle of Texas, visiting as many county highpoints as I could possibly muster. People ask mountaineers why they climb great mountains, but no one asks me why I think Northern Texas is a great place for highpointing. The answer is simple: it's easy! Besides, the geography nerd inside me has always wanted to visit these out-of-the-way, forlorn spots on a map. The land up here is pool-table flat, except for the interesting breaks and canyons on the great Canadian River complex that spans the north panhandle cleanly (Palo Duro Canyon is a popular tourist destination, with cliffs and spires like those in Utah and Arizona). Most highpoints were trivial, but a few were fun, minorly challenging and in some cases, with nice views. Mostly, though, it was very cold and often very foggy. Nevertheless, I had fun. So here we go...
I flew into Amarillo (November 10th) and picked up my car, and within an hour after arriving had bagged a highpoint, the trivially easy Carson county highpoint located at the junctions of highways FM-683 and FM-293, about 10 miles northeast of Amarillo. This junction is inside a 3,595-foot contour that encompasses about 20 acres, located northwest of the USAEC Pantex facility, where bombs are built and stored for military use. My route took me from Amarillo east along US-60 to FM-683 on my left, and from here to the highpoint area. I walked a bit and stepped on a few areas that looked higher... but it's not easy to discern one point above all the others. This would be typical for this trip.
From here I backtracked back to Amarillo and west along Interstate-40 to Wildorado and a try for the Potter County highpoint areas, but the roads leading to it were muddy from the recent snows and my rental started spinning its wheels, so I decided not to chance getting stuck and got out of that mucky mess. Instead, I continued west some more to Oldham County.
With Carson County in the books, I went west in the waning afternoon daylight. Potter County foiled me, so I proceeded further west, eventually exiting at exit 18, dubbed Gruhlkey by the signs. There is no "town" of Gruhlkey, but there is a gas stop there. It may be a name carrying over from the railroad in the area. I think it's named after a local family that owns land in the area. Either way, I can positively say that I may be right, or I may be wrong! Anyway, upon exiting, I got onto FM-2858 and got to the south side of the interstate. This road fronts the interstate for a mile then turns south. After 4 miles it turns west. FM-2858 officially ends a half-mile later, and the pavement goes from nice to bad to non-existent. From the end of the pavement, I followed the main road three more miles west, one mile south, one mile west and parked where the road goes south again. I was now in Deaf Smith County, amid wide-open vacant ranch lands with a house visible about a mile away.
The highpoint is located a shade over a half-mile north from the road, just inside the Oldham county line. Where the main road turns south I looked over the fencing and found a spot to hop it and start walking, keeping on the east side of a principal north-south fence. There were no signs against trespassing, as I recall. About a half-mile from where I started I came to a junction of two fences, and carefully hopped them to get on the west side of the north-south fence, from which it was a short walk about 400 feet to the northwest to the obvious gentle hump that is Oldham's highpoint. Further to the north the land gives way to cliffs and mesas, with Interstate-40 visible as a ribbon way off in the distance. South a bit is a slightly higher hill topped by the Harwell Benchmark, but these were inside Deaf Smith County. I walked back to my car, staying on the west side of the main north-south fence I'd followed up, and sheepishly found an open breach in the fencing about a hundred or so feet south of where I parked, which would have meant no fence-hopping at all. Oh well. It was getting late and very cool so I retreated back into Amarillo and found a Motel-6 along the interstate. Day one was in the books, with two successes and one unsuccessful.
After two successes yesterday afternoon, I awoke early for the big day - a complete circuit of counties north of Amarillo and along the Oklahoma border. I left Amarillo very early, maybe 5 a.m., heading north along US-287, destination: the town of Dumas in Moore County, about 45 miles away. Some rain fell, heavy in places, but not too bad overall. It was very foggy, however.
The highpoint of Moore County is just a blip of land enclosed by a 3,825-foot contour on its west county line. Conveniently, a dirt county road crosses over this region, which covers just a few acres as a best guess. I located myself to this area by following a gridwork of county roads, creatively named after numbers or letters of the alphabet. About four miles north of Dumas on US-287, I went left on to County Road I, and followed it 3.5 miles west to County Road B. I turned north, followed "B" about two miles, and went with it as it turned left and became County Road G. I stayed on "G" for 7 miles, losing the pavement four miles out. I had a little rental passenger vehicle and was concerned the roads might be too muddy for it, but I was fine. Finally, CR-G met with County Line Road. Going south a mile on this road, I met up with an un-marked road at a windmill on its side. The highpoint is along this road, which heads west and hits the county line after about two-tenths of a mile. Presumably, this is county road alignment "H". The highpoint is here (Road "H" for highpoint... clever!), and in the field mostly to the south. I got out and walked it for about 5 minutes. Absolutely nothing here stood out as being "high", and I didn't stay long. It was just about 7 a.m. and very cool- maybe about 35 degrees. The fog was dense and colored a deep purple in the early morning sunrise. Total stillness, total quiet. And me, doing a county highpoint. My shoes did get quite muddy, but that was hardly a problem. I egressed the same way and headed north to Stratford and my next objective, Sherman County.
The morning was still early and quite foggy and rainy when I pulled into the town of Stratford at the intersections of US-287 and US-54. I stopped at the main gas stop and got some snacks, plus tried to scrape away the goop from my boots collected down in Moore County. Driving north into Stratford, a sign advertises the city as the pheasant hunting capital. It's located in far-north Texas in the plane-flat southern plains, not far from the Oklahoma border. The tiny town of Kerrick, on the Texas-Oklahoma line, is about 6 miles northwest of the highpoint area. From the gas station, I headed north on US-287 for 7 miles, then made a soft-right onto County Road 2 which headed due north. I followed CR-2 for 1.4 miles and parked at an obvious highspot on the road.
This is a pleasant hike through some overgrown fields. Two utility poles off to the left serve as good points of reference, as does an abandoned house about 0.4 miles south of the highpoint areas. The fields are not fenced nor posted against trespassing. I began walking through the clumpy grass and brush, zig-zagging often to take a path of least resistance, but staying the course due west using the poles as reference. The eastern of the two 3,805-foot contours is passed in this area. I continued walking west with a slight west-southwest bend, walking up a slight rise. I used the farmhouse as a reference, walking until it was a bit to my southeast. At some point I crossed the county line into Dallam county, and in the process crossed the second of the two 3,805-foot contours. There is a 3,810-foot contour just inside Dallam county, which suggests that the western of the two 3,805-footers contains the actual highpoint, but both can easily be done using my route. Total hiking was just over a mile. Weather was foggy and cool, about 40 degrees. I did not use a GPS and don't think it's necessary, since the rises are fairly evident and there are plenty of reference items to follow. Next up: Hansford County.
This county is a real bugger as it has 10 separate candidate regions that could contain the highpoint. However, a study of the topographical maps and a visit to the areas can convincingly eliminate about 7 of these areas from contention. On the other hand, of the 10 areas, only a couple require any significant hiking. Regardless, this county required a couple hours of my time, not including a return visit to take care of one area that sort of bothered me the first time.
Nine of the ten areas are located near the junction of highways TX-15 and FM-1573 near some bluffs overlooking Coldwater Creek. The 10th area is about 15 miles south. The junction of the highways and 7 of the 10 areas are contained on the "West of Gruver" 7.5 topographical map, which has contours for every 10 feet and in a few cases, dashed contours for the intervening five feet. It is inside such a dashed contour (measuring 3,375 feet) that the two highways meet and where a spot elevation of 3,378 feet is located. I drove in this area and stopped at a couple points along the highway where it seemed to rise a little, and walked around a bit. This 3,375-foot dashed contour contains roughly 1.5 square miles of land. The surrounding land is plowed and did not seem to hold any promising mounds or rises.
The other six areas on the "West of Gruver" topo are 3,370-foot contours, and all are very small, each containing no more than 1-2 acres each. Two are along TX-15 about 1.4 mile west of the junction, and are easily accessible. But extrapolating inside these areas makes it highly unlikely that any point inside reaches 3,375 feet, much less 3,378 feet. The other four 3,370-foot areas are about a mile to the north along the bluffs. Observing from the road indicates the land is very flat, and again, unlikely to rise to the 3,375-foot level.
Moving south slightly along FM-1573 and onto the "Hanna's Draw West" topo map, there are two very small regions contained inside 3,375-foot contours (This topo marks off every 5 feet instead of every 10, as the West of Gruver topo did). One area right along the highway is extremely small, and the flatness of the land again makes it unlikely to reach 3,378 feet. Another 3,375-foot contour is about a mile west along the county line, with similar observations. But because it's marked as 3,375 feet, there is a non-trivial chance that it might hold the highpoint. This area should definitely be visited.
The last area I did not visit. It is about 12-15 miles south along the county line on the "Capps Switch SE" topo, which marks off in 10-foot intervals. A single 3,370-foot contour encompasses about an eighth of a square mile. On the Hanna's Draw West topo, the continuation of the same 3,370-foot contour is shown, and a 3,375-foot contour outside the county tending away from the Hansford county line. For this reason I conclude that this 3,370-foot area on the Capps Switch SE map very likely does not reach 3,375 feet.
Update, May 29, 2002: I went back to revisit this county while in the area. I visited the southernmost area, a single 3,370-foot contour along FM-520 at the Sherman-Hansford county line. I also revisited a 3,375-foot contour area about 10 miles to the north, also straddling the county line. I made a half-mile walk north up along a fence line and got within the contour. There's no way of telling whether the highpoint is in here or the big one to the northwest. In summary, I'd estimate the 3,378-foot spot elevation probably marks the highpoint, or very close to it, with a 95%+ likelihood, with the other 3,375-foot contour (mentioned two paragraphs above) having a 5% chance at best of holding the highpoint. The other areas can be ignored (though most are easily visited).
After doing battle with the Hansford County highpoint conundrum, I drove south in variably cloudy, misty and occasionally sunny (but always cold) weather into Moore County and east a bit toward the Hutchinson County boundary. I got onto southbound FM-1060, which runs parallel to the county line, then found Road K near a pair of large grain silos. Shortly, I crossed into Hutchinson County near a house and some ranch-type buildings. No cars were around and it didn't look like anyone was home. There was no county line sign here so I gauged the boundary from the map (which showed the buildings), and parked where convenient.
A smallish region of 3,380 feet extends into Hutchinson County from the west, encompassing the buildings and the road. All I needed to do was walk around a bit. There were no noticeable bumps to check out, just flatness. There is another 3,380-foot contour that just nicks the county boundary tangentially about 0.7 mile to the north. I chose not to visit that point (see the map and you'll see why). Back in the car I proceeded east into Ochiltree County, where I ran into quite a bit of mud. The journey continues...
Lipscomb County is the most northeasterly Texas county, tucked up against Oklahoma and its panhandle. The county is just as flat and grassy as its neighbors. I had already visited a couple county highpoints this morning and had come over from neighboring Ochiltree County, where I failed on that visit due to muddy roads. I followed US-83 east about 30 miles into the southwest corner of Lipscomb County, seeing nothing but fog and loneliness the whole way. I came upon the junction with TX-23 and went north about 2 miles to another junction with Locust Grove Road. I parked and started my search.
The highpoint in these flat lands is a single large contour marked at 2,880 feet, roughly centered at Locust Grove Road and TX-23. The overall relief is imperceptable to the eye, but I could tell that where I was at the corner was a tad higher than points a few dozen feet off, judging by the undulations of fence lines. A USGS benchmark "Liberty" is found somewhere in here. Listed as 2,892 feet, it's probably at or near the actual highest point. I couldn't find the benchmark but I walked the immediate region for a few minutes anyway. The weather was not very nice- very windy and very cold. My nose and cheeks definitely felt the chill.
Driving back south on TX-23 I stopped about a half-mile later and inspected a field to my right (west). Some bumps and undulations attracted my attention; we were still within the 2,880-foot contour so I thought I'd check it out. There was no fencing to stop me and the field was obviously not in use. Some ridges rose about a foot higher than the ground, but they seemed to orderly and suggested they may have been man-made from some time in the past. In any case, I spent a few minutes checking the area out, then got back into the car and drove on into the town of Canadian for a much needed gas and food stop. Next up on the docket were the Hemphill & Wheeler County pairs.
The highpoint area for these two counties is along FM-1268 where it crosses the Roberts-Hemphill county line, about 8 air-miles southeast of the city of Miami in Roberts county. A 3,000-foot contour wiggles across a large area in the extreme southwest area of Hemphill county, and just nicks the extreme northwest corner of Wheeler. A spot elevation of 3,005 feet is listed right at the Roberts-Hemphill county line along the highway. The Lora 7.5 Quad indicates that no part of any 3,005-foot contours enters into Hemphill county. I took the listed 3,005 spot elevation as the most probable location for the Hemphill County highpoint. Once I came upon the county line along a stretch of FM-1268 that makes a slight turn in the road, I parked and walked the immediate area; it's very flat, as usual. The land north is also very flat.
For Wheeler County, the situation is much simpler. At this slight turn in the road is a dirt road leading south. This road lies right smack on the Roberts-Hemphill county line, then crosses (somewhere) the 4-corners of Roberts-Hemphill-Wheeler-Gray counties. Now, the road is along the Gray-Wheeler county line. The road rises ever so slightly, then makes a pretty quick (slight) descent. I took this area to be Wheeler's best candidate for highpoint. A plowed field to the east encompasses the rest of the 3,000-foot area; no part of it rose enough to warrant inspection. Rather, it all drops pretty fast toward the south and east.
The weather continued to stay gloomy and cold. But it was holding steady - no snow or anything like that. It was a bit after noon as I continued west toward Pampa.
When I arrived into the Pampa region, I had already visited about a half-dozen county highpoints today. The weather had been very gloomy, cold and brisk. Fog and temperatures in the 30s and low 40s made staying out too long uncomfortable. But as I drove west towards the Roberts County highpoint the fog began to burn off and the day started to get nice, believe it or not.
On FM-282 northwest of Pampa the road makes a bend from north to east (presuming one comes from Pampa; I came in from the east). The west-trending continuation of this road is called Hayhook Ranch Road, and I followed it west and northish a few miles past three ctalle grates. At the third grate I parked and made a short hike into the unfenced pasture north of me. The ground rises noticeably here. This short hike took just a few minutes and covered a few hundred feet. A USGS Benchmark "Fence" is located north of this region but I didn't seek it out. A second region of similar elevation is located about 1/8-mile back along the road, requiring a short hike into the low grasses to claim it. Both hikes went fast and were rather enjoyable. The land here is hilly with many breaks, attesting to its proximity to the Canadian River. Rather pretty!
From the Roberts County highpoint it was a quick 20 miles or so south toward the Gray County highpoint. The weather had improved a lot and it was actually warming up with the fog lifting. I could finally see the miles and miles of nothing this part of Texas is famous for!
Gray county is a very easy highpoint. From US-60 southwest of Pampa, I proceeded toward the community of Kingsmill, which is dominated by what looked to me to be a huge refinery plant. It sticks up out of the flat and is visible for miles. I took County Road 1 south for 2.5 miles to where it intersected County Road K. This is the highpoint. I just walked the area a bit. A small building and some derricks are in the area, and some areas seemed to have been built up; they did not appear natural. A bit of confusion ensued: Driving east along County Road K, I came out to a paved route, but now the sign read County Road L. Go figure! However, this area is very easy to find with a topo handy.
Groom is a small city along Interstate-40 (and old US-66) located in extreme southeast Carson county. Donley county "borders" Carson county by touching at corners of a 4-way county junction (Carson is to the northwest, Donley southeast). Anyway, Groom is the natural starting point for an assault on the Donley apex. Exit I-40 and get on business-40, which is the old Route 66. Two large grain elevators located along the south side of business-40 are obvious from all points within town; a sketchy road leaves the main road and passes south between these elevators. Although I didn't see a name for it, the paved road across the way (same alignment) was called Choctaw Road. The sketchy road is old pavement. It heads south briefly, then west at a home, then south again, all in about a mile, losing its pavement at roughly the Carson-Armstrong county line. Now inside Armstrong county, I followed this road south a mile to Alpha Road, then left a half mile to CR-30, which went south yet another mile to Bravo Road. A mile of driving east on Bravo put me inside Donley County and on top of a rise in the road, corresponding with a spot-elevation of 3,268 feet shown on the map. This is the best candidate for the county highpoint; nothing is apparently higher in this mostly flat farm land.
The second, smaller area shown on the map (a 3,265-foot contour) is north about 3/4 mile. I backtracked onto County Road 30, then right onto a dirt continuation of Alpha Road for about 1 mile. There is a windmill shown on the topo and I used that for reference. The area in question is about 1/4 mile south of Alpha Road and slightly northeast of the windmill. I walked in briefly to this area (it's located in a field that grows animal feed). Observations indicate that this second area almost certainly does not contain any point higher than 3,268 feet; it is very flat and has likely been made flatter by plowing.
From here I made an attempt to visit the Collingswood County highpoint, but was unsuccessful. Even so, I had visited ten today, and driven over 600 miles, in a good 12+ hours. I decided to go back to Amarillo and, ironically, stay once again at the very same Motel-6 along I-40. It was after dark when I rolled in, and I crashed hard (asleep, that is).
Today began very crisp and cold, with temperatures in the low 20s in Amarillo. Yesterday I had scored 10 counties in the north panhandle of Texas and covered over 600 miles in the process, so I rewarded myself by sleeping in; I didn't get on the road until about 8 a.m. My flight out of Amarillo didn't take off until 7:30 that night, so I had plenty of time to score highpoints. I figured I would drive a bit west to the state line and work my way back towards Amarillo. The Parmer County highpoint is located in a (surprise) farm field on the state line with New Mexico. From Amarillo I took US-60 to Friona, then FM-2013 out of Friona west to the state line area in the town of Rhea.
The topo shows the highpoint area located about a half-mile south of the highway and a dirt road leading right to it, but the access to that dirt road from the highway has been erased, so I would have to try it from the south. I entered New Mexico, the highway now becoming NM-19. About 0.6 miles later, I turned south onto NM-108. The roads here aren't marked to well and I overshot the right road once, and basically tried a few until I found one that did what the map said it should. This road is 1.5 miles south along NM-108 from NM-19, but it did not have a name that I could see. This road went east past two structures, then turned north along the ste line before turning east again into Texas. At this second turn I parked and looked north along a track - New Mexico on my left, Texas on my right.
A single 4,440-foot contour just nicks the state line about a half-mile north of where I stood. I walked the track past farm fields, some wells and some unidentifiable stuff. Using the map I matched physical features with the printed version and got myself to the highpoint area. The ground rises enough to give me confidence. After a moment of contemplation I returned to my car and went off to toward Castro County.
A single 4,000-foot contour pokes into Castro County, about a half-mile west of FM-1057, a mile south of FM-2397. A dirt track leads to just north of the highpoint area, which itself is located in the middle of a farm field. I arrived and parked momentarily along the better-maintained dirt road across the highway from the dirt track. I was basically getting my maps figured out when a local pulled up in his truck. He thought I looked lost. He got out and we talked for a bit. I told him what I was intending to do, and asked if he knew who owned the land in question. He didn't own the land himself and "sort of" knew who owned/leased the land I was asking about. He figured it would be okay if I didn't tromp around the plants. He seemed amused that I was interested in the "highpoint" of this county. We talked for a bit, then he left to go on his way.
I decided to go for the highpoint. It's a half-mile walk west along the dirt track, a cotton field to my right and an unplanted, deeply furrowed field to my left that held the highpoint. Where the cotton field ended I took to be the county line. From here I walked a few hundred feet south toward a huge Zimmatic sprinkler apparatus, and called it good. It's very flat, and nothing was obviously 'high'. Back to the car, me.
The Swisher county highpoint is a distinct low hill in its far northwest section. I came to the area after making a look-see at the Randall county highpoint. I passed on attempting that one due to lots of cattle in the area and a bit too much vehicle traffic to make me comfortable about trying a stealth. From the same road nearby the Randall highpoint, I drove east about 10 miles and paid close attention to my map and odometer to put my just a bit north of the Swisher highpoint. South Dowell Road is a handy reference; it heads north off of the main road just north of the highpoint region. I parked at a pullout and hiked south up an old ranch road (with lots and lots of mud on it). After about a few hundred yards I found a wide space between the barbed wire and squeezed through, accessing the field to my right (west). A quick jog to the southwest a few hundred more yards brought me to the top, which was littered with bits and pieces of cattle-related junk. I didn't spend much time at the top, and pretty much continued the slow jog back out to my vehicle. The land is low scrub and easy to navigate. No signs explicitly forbid trespassing but I didn't want to push my luck.
An alternative approach to this highpoint is to come west from the town of Happy. It's about an 8-mile drive along the only main westerly road out of Happy to the highpoint area. This was the last of my 15 highpoints for this trip. I drove to the Briscoe county highpoint area but decided against them when fences and gates and cattle stood in my way. I needed to get back to Amarillo anyway for my flight home. I showered at a truck stop in Amarillo and attempted to clean off the mud from my car. A fun, lucrative trip.
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(c) 2000, 2006 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. |