In 1992 I joined up with some scouting friends from Southern California on a quest to climb Mt. Whitney. I had worked in the Scout program while stationed in Los Angeles, and though we had climbed a lot of mountains, we had not climbed Mt. Whitney. However, now that I was West of the Mississippi again, a short drive to Northern California was possible. Little did I know that climbing Mt. Whitney would grow into a quest to go to the highest point in the lower 48 states.
I climbed Mt. Whitney with my two sons and with my friends from California on Sept 3, 1992. Nearly 2 years later, Mr. H, my LA friend, called up to see if I would be interested in joining him on a hike of Kings Peak, UT. and some neighboring peaks Of course - I'd never turn down an opportunity to hike with a good friend. He then gave me some of the details: Hike Kings Peak, then drive over to Wyoming and hike Gannett Peak, then drive to Montana and climb Granite Peak - all in a weeks time. I had not done any research on any of these peaks, but I knew the driving times between the trailheads would be considerable. I countered with a proposal to hike Kings Peak, followed by a rafting trip down the Snake River between Jackson Hole and Palisade Reservoir. The float trip won.
My boys and I joined Mr. H. and a few other friends on the Kings Peak hike on August 11, 1994. It was on Kings Peak that Mr. H clued me in on his objective of going to the highest point in each state. Hey, I'm up for a challenge, bring it on. At first, going to the highest point of each of the 48 states was somewhat of a lark. I could fit a little side trip in as I did my business travels. However, I was a real rookie on the first few states. I didn't do a lot of research or much planning. I let my job related travels take me close and then I'd look at the state map and figure out how to get to the highpoint. It wasn't efficient, but it did work for awhile. Finally I discovered the Highpointers club and ordered a couple of books.
The following chart shows the state highpoints. The colorcode is by region as discussed in one of my books. The symbols are based on the technical difficulty of achieving the top.
Since the first highpoints of California and Utah, it grew into somewhat of an obsession. In 1994 I made a special trip to Arizona with my daughter to climb Mt. Humphreys followed a year later with a solo trip in conjunction with business travels to Mt. Borah in Idaho. I was joined two weeks later by my sons and Mr. H on a second assault on Mt. Borah. In 1996, Mr. H, his wife Raeleen, my wife Susie, and I flew to Boston and began a week long road trip that netted us Katahdin, Mt. Washington, Mt. Mansfield, Mt. Marcey, Mt. Greylock, Mt. Frissell, the highpoint of New Jersey and Jerimoth Hill. It was a lot of driving, but we were in excellent company.
In Sept 1999, I had a bunch of use or lose frequent flyer miles that I needed to burn, so I flew to Atlanta for a three day weekend and knocked off Cheaha, Woodall, Taum Sauk and Britton Hill. The hardest highpoint of those four was Britton Hill. Britton Hill is the highpoint of Florida and is located in a city park. I got to the park shortly after midnight and stumbled around with my flashlight for awhile. A couple years later I went back to Britton Hill to see what the area looks like in daylight. Britton Hill was highpoint #46.
I was invited to join this group again in August 2001 to climb Granite. Granite Peak was the last of the 48 highpoints. Am I done? Time will tell. I'd still like to do Mauna Kea and Mt. McKinley, but they haven't been a burning desire yet and there are still other things that I want to do. However, the journey has been incredible!
The following table is a list of the U.S. highpoints, elevation, rank, and the sequence in which I accomplished it.
| ELEV RANK | MY ORDER | PEAK | ST | US REGION | ELEV | DAY | YEAR |
| 2 | 1 | MT. WHITNEY | CA | WEST | 14,495 | SEP 3 | 1992 |
| 7 | 2 | KINGS PEAK | UT | WEST | 13,528 | AUG 11 | 1994 |
| 49 | 3 | TOWER HILL | DL | NORTHEAST | 448 | AUG 17 | 1994 |
| 32 | 4 | BACKBONE MT | MD | NORTHEAST | 3,360 | NOV 11 | 1994 |
| 24 | 5 | SPRUCE KNOB | WV | NORTHEAST | 4,863 | NOV 11 | 1994 |
| 33 | 6 | MT DAVIS | PA | NORTHEAST | 3,213 | NOV 12 | 1994 |
| 12 | 7 | HUMPHREYS | AZ | WEST | 12,633 | SEP 22 | 1994 |
| 11 | 8 | MT BORAH | ID | WEST | 12,655 | AUG 5 | 1995 |
| 28 | 9 | MT. SUNFLOWER | KA | HIGH PLAINS | 4,039 | MAR 8 | 1995 |
| 20 | 10 | PANORAMA PT | NE | HIGH PLAINS | 5,424 | MAR 9 | 1995 |
| 13 | 11 | MT HOOD | OR | WEST | 11,239 | MAY 27 | 1995 |
| 22 | 12 | KATAHDIN | ME | NORTHEAST | 5,267 | AUG 5 | 1996 |
| 18 | 13 | MT. WASHINGTON | NH | NORTHEAST | 6,288 | AUG 6 | 1996 |
| 26 | 14 | MT. MANSFIELD | VT | NORTHEAST | 4,393 | AUG 6 | 1996 |
| 21 | 15 | MT. MARCEY | NY | NORTHEAST | 5,344 | AUG 7 | 1996 |
| 31 | 16 | MT GREYLOCK | MA | NORTHEAST | 3,491 | AUG 9 | 1996 |
| 36 | 17 | MT. FRISSELL | CN | NORTHEAST | 2,380 | AUG 9 | 1996 |
| 40 | 18 | HIGH POINT | NJ | NORTHEAST | 1,803 | AUG 9 | 1996 |
| 46 | 19 | JERIMOTH HILL | RI | NORTHEAST | 812 | AUG 11 | 1996 |
| 9 | 20 | BOUNDARY PEAK | NV | WEST | 13,143 | AUG 24 | 1996 |
| 14 | 21 | GUADALUPE PEAK | TX | HIGH PLAINS | 8,749 | JAN 27 | 1996 |
| 23 | 22 | BLACK MESA | OK | HIGH PLAINS | 4,973 | JULY 5 | 1996 |
| 8 | 23 | WHEELER PEAK | NM | WEST | 13,161 | JULY 6 | 1996 |
| 3 | 24 | MT ELBERT | CO | WEST | 14,433 | AUG 27 | 1997 |
| 15 | 25 | HARNEY PEAK | SD | HIGH PLAINS | 7,242 | AUG 28 | 1997 |
| 30 | 26 | WHITE BUTTE | ND | HIGH PLAINS | 3,506 | AUG 29 | 1997 |
| 42 | 27 | UNNAMED | IA | MIDWEST | 1,670 | AUG 30 | 1997 |
| 4 | 28 | MT RANIER | WA | WEST | 14,410 | JULY 5 | 1997 |
| 48 | 29 | DRISKILL MOUNTAIN | LA | SOUTHEAST | 535 | OCT 4 | 1997 |
| 34 | 30 | MAGAZINE MOUNTAIN | AR | SOUTHEAST | 2,753 | OCT 5 | 1997 |
| 43 | 31 | CAMPBELL HILL | OH | MIDWEST | 1,550 | MAR 10 | 1998 |
| 44 | 32 | UNNAMED | IN | MIDWEST | 1,257 | MAR 11 | 1998 |
| 17 | 33 | CLINGMAN'S DOME | TN | SOUTHEAST | 6,643 | OCT 23 | 1998 |
| 25 | 34 | BRASSTOWN BALD | GA | SOUTHEAST | 4,784 | OCT 24 | 1998 |
| 29 | 35 | SASSAFRAS MT | SC | SOUTHEAST | 3,560 | OCT 24 | 1998 |
| 16 | 36 | MT. MITCHELL | NC | SOUTHEAST | 6,684 | OCT 24 | 1998 |
| 27 | 37 | BLACK MOUNTAIN | KY | SOUTHEAST | 4,145 | OCT 30 | 1998 |
| 19 | 38 | MOUNT ROGERS | VA | SOUTHEAST | 5,729 | OCT 31 | 1998 |
| 45 | 39 | CHARLES MOUND | IL | MIDWEST | 1,235 | JUL 23 | 1999 |
| 39 | 40 | TIMM HILL | WI | MIDWEST | 1,951 | JUL 23 | 1999 |
| 37 | 41 | EAGLE MOUNTAIN | MN | MIDWEST | 2,301 | JUL 24 | 1999 |
| 38 | 42 | MOUNT ARVON | MI | MIDWEST | 1,979 | JUL 24 | 1999 |
| 35 | 43 | CHEAHA MOUNTAIN | AL | SOUTHEAST | 2,407 | SEP 22 | 1999 |
| 47 | 44 | WOODALL MOUNTAIN | MS | SOUTHEAST | 806 | SEP 22 | 1999 |
| 41 | 45 | TAUM SAUK MOUNTAIN | MO | MIDWEST | 1,772 | SEP 23 | 1999 |
| 50 | 46 | BRITTON HILL | FL | SOUTHEAST | 345 | SEP 24 | 1999 |
| 5 | 47 | GANNETT PEAK | WY | WEST | 13,804 | AUG 17 | 2000 |
| 10 | 48 | GRANITE PEAK | MT | WEST | 12,799 | AUG 20 | 2001 |
| 1 | MT MCKINLEY | AK | WEST | 20,320 | |||
| 6 | MAUNA KEA | HA | WEST | 13,796 |
