Category: High Points

the Sierra NevadaCaliforniaSeptember  2016 After exploring the Lone Pine area, Lisa and I take the opportunity to visit Death Valley, the largest national park in the country, not including what they have in Alaska.  We figure that a day should be plenty enough time to enjoy all 5270 square miles.  How big is that?  Bigger… Continue reading Mount Whitney III of 8 — Badwater

the Sierra NevadaCaliforniaSeptember  2016 Four blocks north of the Lone Pine Film History Museum in the center of town, you can turn west onto Whitney Portal Road.  Drive 11.7 miles and you are at a campground.  We’ll do that later.  For now, we turn right in 2.7 miles onto Movie Road.  Another 1.6 miles and… Continue reading Mount Whitney II of 8 — Movie Road

the Sierra NevadaCaliforniaSeptember  2016 After an excellent flight from Pittsburgh to LAX — excellent meaning “not bouncy and it didn’t scare the hell out of me” — we jammed into a shuttle bus like a crowded Steelers bar during the Superbowl, only without the shouting, the beer and the black and gold, and everyone had suitcases. … Continue reading Mount Whitney I of 8 — Arrival

Mount RogersVirginiaJuly  2011 We have the summit to ourselves.  Highest point in Virginia.  Rejoice.  Rejoice and quickly get out the camera to document our high point achievement before someone else shows up and we embarrass ourselves with our Highpoint dance. We do not exactly have the summit to ourselves.  Oodles of butterflies have joined us. … Continue reading Arf

Wheeler PeakNew MexicoJuly  2013 Hiking down, hiking down from Wheeler Peak from an elevation of 13 161 feet in the Sangre de Christo Mountains.  The Blood of Christ. We are interrupted by a tongue. A couple of hikers pass us with their dog.  The sloppy tongue belongs to the dog.  You’re not surprised, are you? … Continue reading Dog Tongue

Mount RogersVirginiaJuly  2011 We start up the Susan Spillane Trail off the A T to the summit of Mount Rogers.  Our trail is thick with balsam fir trees, so many that the place was once named Balsam Mountain.  At that time, a geologist/physicist/professor at the University of Virginia was awarded the title of the state’s… Continue reading The Hills are Alive

Mount WashingtonNew HampshireAugust  2013 By comparison, the summit of Texas has a metal pyramid and rocks and rubble.  Arizona has a sign and some rocks and rubble.  Rhode Island has a hand painted sign and a rock.  Virginia has some boulders.  New Hampshire has more people than you can shake a stick at, which is… Continue reading The Summit Attraction

Observatory Hill, the high point of PittsburghPittsburghPennsylvaniaDecember  2014 As we are wandering around this array of half-million gallon water tanks and the 63-story tall antenna at the high point of Pittsburgh, I wonder about the mysteries. How do they get the water into these huge tanks in the first place?  What are all those thingies… Continue reading Know it All

Spruce KnobWest VirginiaMay  2014 If you are expecting a child, I’m here to help you name it.  These days, parents seem to have no qualms about naming their children…  pretty much anything.  Why not?  I’ll supply you with nine names from the area we cover on this particular Highpointing trip, Spruce Knob and environs.  See… Continue reading How to Name Your Child

Panorama PointNebraskaJuly  2013 Standing on the highest land form in the state of Nebraska, looking southwest.  In the far distance, we can see the Rocky Mountains.  East and southeast holds the multitude of windmills of the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska, or MEAN, wind farm.  Looking west, bison. I understand also that this is the… Continue reading Plover Preservation