Joel had done a lot of planning to put together a trip where we could catch multiple highpoints over vacation time I had the week of Memorial Day. Of course neither of us dreamed that the storms that kept moving through the Midwest would continue for weeks and potentially interfere with our planned agenda for the Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas highpoints.

Luckily, we ended up traveling about 2 days after each if the states had experienced massive amounts of rainfall. As we moved through Utah and Wyoming, our first problem arose. It seems that Joel is now on the Super 8 Most Wanted list (in addition to the Best Western chain.) After a quick exit of the hotel the next morning, we drove to Kansas. The highest natural point in Kansas is Mt. Sunflower at 4, 039′, a short distance from the KS/CO border. Once we got over the border of Colorado at Kanorado, KS, (aptly named …) we headed due south for about 20 miles on what we thought was a dirt road. Joel called it “gumbo” but it was more like glue … it seems that the area had gotten 2″ – 3″ of rain the day before and even with the trusty Jeep, we just about ended up into the ditch twice.

There is a nice display at the “summit” but, as you can tell from the photos, it is a “drive-up.” After spending some time at the highpoint, we drove to the next town and spent about $15 in quarters trying to blast the mud off the car. It was virtually impossible to drive and brake as everything was so gummed up… Once the truck was relatively clean, we headed down to OK and camped in the Black Mesa State Park in preparation for our hike up Black Mesa the next day.

Enjoy the quick video of Joel’s exhausting summit push … and notice in the photos that I am breaking in my new cowboy boots in preparation for the Bar W Dude Ranch in August.