We began our highpointing oddessy with a plan to drive out through Kansas, hitting Mount Sunflower along the way, and then attempt Mount Elbert, the Colorado highpoint over the 4th of July. Plans are made to be changed, however, and the oddball weather that summer dropped five feet of fresh snow on Mount Elbert, so we would have to settle for just the single highpoint on that trip.

Finding Mount Sunflower (4,039') is a bit of a trick. Basically, you drive as far west as you can and still be in Kansas (the Kanorado exit off I-70), then wind south along the section roads for an hour or so until you get to this sign. The farmer who owns this particular pasture has a sense of humor, having removed the gate and installed a cattle grate so it is easy to get from the gravel road over to the highpoint itself.

Once at the highpoint, you will find a fenced-off spot in the pasture, with the summit boulder, a rather artistic sunflower sculpture, and a rural mailbox which holds the summit log notebook. July 1, 1995: One down, forty-nine to go!!

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A truly pastoral (or was that "pasture-al"??) highpoint, Mount Sunflower is near the Kansas / Colorado border. Finding it is interesting, to say the least, since the gravel section roads aren't on the state highway map and although they do show up on the USGS topographic quadrangle, you would have to buy the whole set from Kanorado down to Mt. Sunflower in order to follow the roads. The day in 1995 when we stopped there, it was typically windy and atypically chilly for the first of July.