Day two of my March Texas County Highpoint Spring Break Madness Tour began at our car-camp site at the Ector county highpoint. I was accompanied by Bob Martin and Andy Martin. We were set to get the Winkler county highpoint this morning. Afterwards, Andy would need to start heading home to Tucson while Bob and I would go on to snag the Loving and Gaines counties highpoints.

For Winkler county's highpoint, we needed to backtrack out to the main highway then immediately re-enter the same road, except take the right gate instead of the left. Andy stowed his car at an oil-pump along the way and rode with Bob. We went north on this variable-quality road for about 3 miles before coming to an open gate but with a clear "No Trespassing" sign... which we just went through anyway (I wasn't too comfortable about doing this but I figured if we got caught, it'd be better to have partners in this crime instead of just me). Following this same road about anoyther three miles, we came to yet another gate with tons of "No Trespassing" signs, but this gate was locked, so we backtracked south about a mile, found a sketchy pipeline road (just south of the BM Cole), and followed it generally northwest about 2 miles until it petered out at the corner of two fences. Here, we parked, and set out on our hike.

Just on the north side of this fence was a fine dirt road that led pretty much right to the highpoint area. This was the same dirt road that had been gated and locked, denying us access. We hopped the fence and started walking along this road. A huge radio tower out in the distance served as a good guide. About an hour's walk later, we were now out on the promontory containing the two closed 3,400-foot contours that mark the Winkler highpoint. For the northern of the two, we walked about 15 minutes in the creosote brush to a somewhat obvious rise. Once reaching this rise, Bob and Andy sighted to nearby areas to ensure we were higher than the others, while I noted our position on my GPS.

The southern region was about 1 mile due south of the northern region. We walked out to it, built a rock and wood-lathe cairn and sighted north to the first area. Both Andy and Bob felt the northern area was slightly higher. Since we had both, we were satisfied we had successfully "conquered" Winkler county, and headed back to our vehicles. Total hiking round-trip was about 7 miles and about 3 hours.

While driving out, we came out to near the main entrance to these roads along the main highway in Notrees. Bob dropped Andy off so Andy could go run to his car and drive it out. As Bob and I drove out, an Oil company truck and an Ector County Sheriff's cruiser were driving in, no doubt to check on Andy's car. Bob and I waited briefly out at the main highway but then decided to get moving. As it turned out, there was no problem, and Andy got his car out fine.

There is a historical marker along TX-302 about 5 miles west of Notrees that refers to the Winkler county highpoint (see photo). The highpoint is apparently named "Blue Mountain", although from the highway it's just a bluff with a flat top. The marker gets the elevation wrong, but does offer some information about the settlers and Indians in the area. Apparently there are some caves and pictographs on Blue Mountain. From the highway it would be a long, boring 4.5-mile walk to the highpoint.