Fresh off our successful Reeves County adventure, Andy Martin, Bob Martin and I made a stop in the town of Balmorhea for lunch, and then drove 50 miles to the area comprising the probable highpoint of Ward County. Ward County is another remote, sandy desert county in far-west Texas. Interstate-20 passes through it, and the main city and county seat is Monahans. There's a "million barrel" attraction somewhere nearby, with supposedly a million oil barrells all stacked up. I have not visited this place. However, the Monahans Sand Dunes is an interesting natural feature, worth a half-day's visit with some easy hiking. This I did, but on another trip.

Back to the highpoint: Andy, Bob and I left the interstate onto FM-516 into Barstow and then onto FM-2355, which put us near the highpoints. Not surprisingly, this was very remote, flat desert land, with lots of oil pumps, fences and signs. However, none of them said to keep out, and all the gates were open. Andy stowed his car near a pump and rode shotgun with Bob, while I followed. We followed a whole series of access roads across the scrubby plain, eventually parking at a fence line. I couldn't begin to tell you exactly what we did. I just followed Bob and Andy. We were about five miles from the last of the paved roads.

Hopping the fence and walking generally south and west, we had seven areas to wander over to be sure we hit the highpoint. One was very near the cars and naturally, didn't look like anything at all. Another area was about 500 feet south, and we walked to that, too.

The third area we visited was another mile southwest, a large 2,880-foot blob of land with a USGS Benchmark "Dunn". Given the size of this area, and the fact the USGS put a benchmark here, we felt this may be the best bet for the county highpoint. Although the land here was more of the same flat scrubby desert, we were at the lip of a broad band of bluffs facing west, with about 300 feet of drop. So we were definitely on a high region.

The fourth area was due east and not as big as the "Dunn" area. The fifth, sixth and seventh areas were tiny and on a general bearing back to our trucks. We walked and stepped on any mound or hillock or anything that looked plausible, but I doubt any of these tiny regions held the highest point. My vote goes with the Dunn area.

We were back to our trucks in an hour, a hearty little hike in the Texas outback. It was nearing 5 p.m., so we drove some more east and had time to visit one more county highpoint, in Ector County, before camping that night in the bush.