High-Pointing the States: Part Three – The Western Swing
This is the third in a series of my adventure to visit as many of the fifty US states' highest points. We've visited the six states that surround Arkansas and Mt. Magazine in the previous two episodes. This time we'll look at a trip I took in August of 2013 to visit 5 western states: Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas. Since I covered Oklahoma in part one, I'll just say that it was the first stop on this trip. I left Little Rock and drove over 700 miles that day to the panhandle and stayed in a state park that was near Black Mesa. The following day I got up and did the Mesa before lunch then made my way from Kenton, Oklahoma west into New Mexico, heading for Taos. New Mexico It was interesting to drive the back county and state roads in N.E. New Mexico. The high plains gullies and scrub made for an eye-opening trip. I finally was on U.S. 64 to Cimarron to make a quick visit to the Philmont Scout Ranch on my way to Taos. I arrived in Taos about 6 pm, ate dinner and decided to get closer to my target, Wheeler [...]