Peak travel: Viewing the U.S. from each state's highest point
California's Mt. Whitney is the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States. Reaching its windswept summit requires a strenuous hike of more than 20 miles roundtrip, ascending to an elevation of 14,505 feet.
But for the 180 people who recently gathered in the nearby town of Bishop, Mt. Whitney is on exactly the same level as Mississippi's Woodall Mountain, Nebraska's Panorama Point, or Indiana's Hoosier Hill. Each stands tall as a state highpoint.
"There is Denali, there's Rainier, there's Hood that are really difficult peaks," said Shannon Brumund. "But you can do a lot of peaks that are easy to do, that are a fun trip with the family."
Brumund is the president of the Highpointers Club, a group devoted to celebrating, and summiting, the highest peak in every state. "It's partially about just coming together as a group that enjoys this kind of weird hobby that people haven't heard of," she said.
On the surface, to those who do not prioritize elevation above all else, "highpointing" might sound a little bit pointless. After all, why would a person with enough skill to climb Wyoming's challenging Gannett Peak at nearly 14,000 feet, also care about visiting Britton Hill, a parking lot in the panhandle of Florida with an elevation of 345 feet?
"We have this, like, huge, unique, beautiful and diverse country, and a lot of people don't see a lot of it," said Lucy Westlake. "And I just think highpointing is an amazing way to travel around the country and have, like, a purpose and a guideline on how to do that."
In 2021, at 17 years old, Westlake became the youngest woman to ever visit every state highpoint. She now writes a column for the club's Apex to Zenith newsletter.
For most members, getting to all 50 is a lifetime goal.
While some of the highpoints are extremely physically challenging, others, like Mount Washington in New Hampshire, or High Point State Park in New Jersey, have drivable summits.
And some can be logistically complex. The highest point in Illinois, Charles Mound, is on a private farm. But to accommodate the altitude-obsessed, the landowners allow access on just four weekends a year. "A lot of hikers will say this is the hardest highpoint because you just got to time it," said Floridian Rick Wise, who has been hitting highpoints with his dog, Kika.
Carol and Greg Weiland came to Charles Mound from Ohio, to continue their tradition of taking photos of their shoes on each survey marker.
Two weeks before traveling to Illinois from Montana, Dee Winters summited Utah's 13,528-foot King's Peak. "As a group, they encourage you to keep going and keep moving, and I think that's important," she said. "As you age, you've got to keep moving, you have to. Otherwise, you'll sit and die. And I'm not up for that yet!"
Up on Charles Mound, surrounded by soybean fields, it's certainly scenic, but there is no superlative viewpoint, the kind that everyone says, "You have to see." It's more of a geographical quirk that has brought people here. "Yeah," said Ray O'Conor, who came from New York, "but you know, the scenery, the farm fields, the dirt roads – there's a little bit of magic in almost every route that brings you to one of these places."
It's what's brought siblings Lidy and Sjaak Van Schie from the Netherlands to the U.S. for dozens of highpointing expeditions. Asked what sort of reaction they get back home after visiting a spot no one has heard of, Sjaak said, "Well, they don't understand. But we do, and that's most important!"
Lidy added, "The nice thing about highpointing is that all those highpoints are places you would normally not go."
Places like Bishop, California. As Shannon Brummund explains, coming to these Highpointers Club conventions, discussing all of these highs and lows, offers a chance to enjoy some middle ground. She said, "I think being part of the club has helped me realize, like, if you sit down in a room with people and you're talking about something that you love, all the rest of the stuff matters less."
For more info:
Story produced by Kelsey Micklas. Editor: Steven Tyler.