For reasons not entirely clear to me, I enjoy visiting states' highest and lowest points. I had a streak of 13 months in a row of visiting either a state's highest or lowest point, each time with a different group of people and taking a different vehicle, but it's over now. However, I plan to continue my efforts to visit highest and lowest points.
| State | Highest Point (rank in height, rank in difficulty) | Feet above sea level | Notes |
| Alabama | Cheaha Mountain (35,46) | 2407 | I believe there's a restaurant at the top. It's due east of Birmingham. |
| Alaska | Mount McKinley (1,1) | 20,320 | Who knows? It's in Denali National Park |
| Arizona | Humphreys Peak (12,10) | 12,633 | I have driven through Flagstaff and seen Humphreys Peak towering over the city, and so I am eager to return to the area and climb it. |
| Arkansas | Magazine Mountain (34,28) | 2,753 | In the western part of the state, midway between Little Rock and Fort Smith |
| California | Mt. Whitney (2,8) | 14,494 | Access is limited by a Permit Lottery every year in February |
| Colorado | Mt. Elbert (3,9) | 14,433 | Near Leadville, the highest incorporated town in the US. |
| Connecticut | South slope of Mt. Frissell (36,20) (the peak of Mt. Frissell is in Massachusetts) | 2,380 | On a side trail of the Appalachian Trail |
| Ebright Azimuth (49,49) | 448 | February 21, 2004 | |
| Florida | Britton Hill (50,50) | 345 | The Lowest Highest Point regardless of what they say in the very entertaining, but factually incorrect, song by Moxy Früvous from their album Live Noise, but then again as they admit earlier on the album, they are Canadians. Of course, if you told me that say, Prince Edward Island is the province with the lowest highest point, I'd probably believe you even though I have no idea if this is true. |
| Brasstown Bald (25,26) | 4,784 | October 14, 2004 Unfortunately, the summit was shrouded in clouds and I could barely see the top of the observation tower from the visitors center at the bottom of the observation tower. I was also very disappointed that the visitors center anamatronic forest rangers were temporarily removed. You must ask them to open the door to see the USGS marker. Nearby Helen, Georgia, is a faux Bavarian town and as such looks kinda silly as evidenced by Das Huddlehaus. | |
| Hawai`i | Mauna Kea (6,30) | 13,796 | Anybody know an observatory worker? |
| Idaho | Borah Peak (10,6) | 12,662 | ? |
| Illinois | Charles Mound (45,32) | 1,235 | Visit only allowed during first weekend of the months in May through August |
| Hoosier Hill (44,40) | 1,257 | May 22, 2005, on the Ann Arbor-Nashville Meandering | |
| Iowa | Hawkeye Point (42,41) | 1,670 | ? |
| Kansas | Mount Sunflower (28,44) | 4,039 | ? |
| Kentucky | Black Mountain (27,42) | 4,145 | The coal company that owns it requires a potential visitor to mail in a liablity waiver prior to visiting. |
| Louisiana | Driskill Mountain (48,25) | 535 | ? |
| Maine | Katahdin, a.k.a. Baxter Peak (22,15) | 5,267 | Its summit is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. |
| Backbone Mountain (32,22) | 3,360 | April 15, 2006, on the Good Highday Trip | |
| Massachusetts | Mt. Greylock (31,39) | 3,491 | On the Appalachian Trail |
| Michigan | Mount Arvon (38,24) | 1,979 | ? |
| Minnesota | Eagle Mountain (37,18) | 2,301 | ? |
| Woodall Mountain (47,48) | 806 | August 23, 2003 | |
| Taum Sauk (41,33) | 1,772 | July 17, 2004 on the July 2004 High- and Lowpointing Extravaganza | |
| Montana | Granite Peak (10,3) | 12,799 | ? |
| Nebraska | Panorama Point (20,43) | 5,424 | ? |
| Nevada | Boundary Peak (9,11) | 13,143 | ? |
| New Hampshire | Mount Washington (18,38) | 6,288 | Worst weather in the world |
| High Point (40,36) | 1,803 | I first saw the obelisk at the top in 2001, but I did not actually visit the summit until nearly five years later on the Garden State Crisscrossing | |
| New Mexico | Wheeler Peak (8,12) | 13,161 | ? |
| New York | Mount Marcy (21,14) | 5,344 | Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was highpointing on Mount Marcy when word arrived that President McKinley had died. A trail marks the descent that TR took to go become president. |
| Mount Mitchell (16,35) | 6684 | July 21, 2003 | |
| North Dakota | White Butte (30,23) | 3,506 | ? |
| Campbell Hill (43,47) | 1,550 | May 23, 2005, on the Ann Arbor-Nashville Meandering | |
| Oklahoma | Black Mesa (23,17) | 4,973 | ? |
| Oregon | Mount Hood (13,5) | 11,239 | ? |
| Mount Davis (33,45) | 3,213 | October 12, 2003 | |
| Rhode Island | Jerimoth Hill (46,29) | 812 | On private property and the new owners recently increased public access to more than just five or six holiday weekends per year that the previous owners allowed. |
| Sassafras Mountain (29,37) | 3,560 | September 27, 2003 | |
| South Dakota | Harney Peak (15,19) | 7,242 | It's near Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands National Park |
| Clingman's Dome (17,27) | 6,643 | May 15, 2003, plus I think I went years ago with my family. | |
| Texas | Guadelupe Peak (14,13) | 8,749 | In Guadelupe Mountains National Park and close to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. It should be teamed up with the lowest point in New Mexico |
| Utah | Kings Peak (7,7) | 13,528 | ? |
| Vermont | Mount Mansfield (26,21) | 2,407 | ? |
| Mt. Rogers (19,16) | 5,729 | June 26, 2003 | |
| Washington | Mount Rainier (4,4) | 14,411 | I would have seen Mt. Rainier on my trip to Seattle, but the gloomy weather prevented it. |
| Spruce Knob (24,34) | 4,863 | April 14, 2006, on the Good Highday Trip | |
| Wisconsin | Timms Hill (39,31) | 1,951 | ? |
| Wyoming | Gannett Peak (5,2) | 13,804 | ? |
| State | Lowest Point | Feet above sea level | Notes | |
| Gulf of Mexico | 0 | In March of 1994, a bunch of friends and I went to Gulf Shores for spring break. | ||
| Alaska | Pacific Ocean | 0 | Cruise Ship? Float plane? I think there may be a lake somewhere that it a couple of feet below sea level. Must do more research before my trip. | |
| Arizona | Colorado River--Mexican Border | 70 | It is my understanding that the Colorado River is actually dry at the Mexican border with the bulk of the water in the river drawn off for irrigation and the little that flows into Mexico flowing through a nearby canal. | |
| Arkansas | Ouachita River--Louisiana border, near Felsenthal | 55 | ? | |
| California | Badwater | -282 | In Death Valley National Park | |
| Colorado | Arikaree River--Kansas border near Nebraska border | 3320 | ? | |
| Long Island Sound | 0 | John and I went to Mystic Seaport in June, 2001, on our way to Quebec. | ||
| Atlantic Ocean | 0 | March 27, 2004 | ||
| Gulf of Mexico/Atlantic Ocean | 0 | We went to the Atlantic Ocean when we went to Disney World in March of 1988, I think. | ||
| Atlantic Ocean | 0 | June 6, 2004. I had a couple of extra hours to kill before meeting my parents in Hilton Head, SC, and so I headed off to Savannah and then to Tybee Island. On my way back through Savannah, I noticed several military vehicles and police officers blocking off part of the historic district. Later I found out that it was for the G8 summit down the coast at Sea Island. | ||
| Hawai`i | Pacific Ocean | 0 | ? | |
| Idaho | Snake River on the Washington border near Lewiston | 710 | ? | |
| Confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers near Cairo | 279 | July 17, 2004 on the July 2004 High- and Lowpointing Extravaganza | ||
| Indiana | Confluence of the Wabash and Ohio Rivers near Mount Vernon | 320 | ? | |
| Iowa | Confluence of the Des Moines and Mississippi Rivers near Keokuk | 480 | ? | |
| Kansas | Verdigris River at the Oklahoma border | 679 | ? | |
| Kentucky | Mississippi River at the Tennessee border | 257 | Read the sad story--July 18, 2004 It should be more easily accessable by boat, and so I'd like to build a raft and put it in the river at Hannibal, MO, and float down the Mississippi River the lowest points in either Kentucky or Tennessee, or maybe even New Orleans, but that's probably too far. | |
| Louisiana | Ponchartrain Park, New Orleans | -8 | I am unsure how Hurricane Katrina affected this. | |
| Atlantic Ocean | 0 | Oct 9-11, 2006--Most of my time in Portland was spent at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Society of Rheology, but there were a couple of times where I sneaked down to the wharf for lunch and there was also a dinner cruise sponsored by some company that makes rheometers but I can't recall the name of right now. | ||
| Atlantic Ocean | 0 | We went there on the way to the lowest point in Delaware for the Streak on March 27, 2004 | ||
| Massachusetts | Atlantic Ocean | 0 | Whaling ship to Nantucket? Cape Cod? I could befriend a Kennedy and go to Martha's Vineyard or a Kennedy enemy and go to Chappaquiddick? | |
| Lake Erie | 571 | May 22, 2005, on the Ann Arbor-Nashville Meandering | ||
| Minnesota | Lake Superior | 600 | Paddle through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area to the lake? | |
| Gulf of Mexico | 0 | January 2, 2004 | ||
| St. Francis River on the Arkansas border near Kennett | 230 | July 18, 2004 on the July 2004 High- and Lowpointing Extravaganza | ||
| Montana | Kootenai River on the Idaho border near Troy | 1800 | I would not have thought the lowest point in Montana would be on the Idaho border. | |
| Nebraska | Missouri River on the Kansas border | 840 | ? | |
| Colorado River at the California border | 479 | December 23, 2003 | ||
| New Hampshire | Atlantic Ocean | 0 | ? | |
| Atlantic Ocean | 0 | March 16, 2005. While Liberty Island and Ellis Island are in New York, they actually lie on the New Jersey side of the state line that goes through the middle of the bay based on an agreement between the two states signed in 1834. So the ferry ride from Battery Park passes through New Jersey waters before arriving at Liberty Island, and then through more New Jersey waters to Ellis Island. In the 1990s, New Jersey claimed that since Ellis Island has be expanded with landfill four times since 1834, the added land came out of New Jersey waters, and should therefore belong to the Garden State. The Supreme Court agreed and so the Immigration Museum on Ellis Island is in New York (the border was taken to be the original outline of the island shifted so that the state border would not pass through any building), most of the island, including the tax revenue generating parts and the state's lowest point, are in New Jersey. A year later, I returned to the lowest point of New Jersey, this time in Atlantic City and Cape May, during the Garden State Crisscrossing | ||
| New Mexico | Pecos River on the Texas border | 2,840 | Near Carlsbad Caverns, combine with Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas | |
| Atlantic Ocean | 0 | March 16, 2005. I took the ferry from Battery Park at the souther tip of Manhattan out to Liberty Island and then over to Ellis Island. See note for New Jersey lowest point. | ||
| Atlantic Ocean | 0 | April 12, 2003 was the first time. I have been a couple of times since then, including a night camping on Cape Hatteras. | ||
| North Dakota | Red River at the Canadian border | 750 | Snowmobiles in winter? | |
| Ohio | Confluence of the Great Miami and Ohio Rivers | 455 | Near Cincinnati. | |
| Oklahoma | Little River on the Arkansas border | 289 | ? | |
| Oregon | Pacific Ocean | 0 | ? | |
| Delaware River near the Delaware border | 0 | March 11, 2006. The Delaware River is still tidal for a few miles past the Pennsylvania-Delaware border, but I am unsure how far. I stopped just across the border at a small park in the town of Marcus Hook | ||
| Rhode Island | Atlantic Ocean | 0 | ? | |
| Atlantic Ocean | 0 | November 30, 2003 plus two or three trips to Hilton Head Island with my family, and a trip to Patriots Point in Charleston | ||
| South Dakota | Minnesota River at Big Stone Lake on Minnesota border | 966 | ? | |
| Tennessee | Mississippi River at Mississippi border | 178 | ? | |
| Texas | Gulf of Mexico or Lake near where Rio Grande enters Gulf of Mexico | 0 or -2 | I've seen conflicting information about the Texas nadir | |
| Utah | Beaver Dam Wash at the Arizona border | 2000 | ? | |
| Vermont | Lake Champlain | 75 | I may have been there, but I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure we stopped at Lake Champlain, but I believe it was on the New York side. | |
| Atlantic Ocean | 0 | We went there on the way to the lowest point in Delaware for the Streak on March 27, 2004 | ||
| Pacific Ocean | 0 | March 8-9, 2003 | ||
| West Virginia | Potomac River at the Virginia border near Harpers Ferry | 240 | ? | |
| Wisconsin | Lake Michigan | 579 | ? | |
| Wyoming | Belle Fourche River on the South Dakota border | 3099 | ? |
