High Plains High Points Continued – Black Mesa

Moving down the list (in terms of elevation) of high plains high points, we come now to the high point of Oklahoma, which is Black Mesa (elev. 4,973 feet) in the far western reaches of the 35 mile wide “panhandle.”  Black Mesa is actually a much larger feature and extends into neighboring New Mexico as well as Colorado, and the high point of the entire mesa is not in Oklahoma, but in Colorado at 5,712 feet.  Nonetheless, the high point of Oklahoma is a distinct landform and is part of a large area of mesas, buttes, and canyons that altogether have a “classic Hollywood western movie” look, or perhaps a Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote look.

There is a moderate and pleasant trail to the top (although when I was there it was February and snowy/muddy), and the views are excellent as they reach toward the mountains of New Mexico and Colorado.  The Great Plains Trail is not likely to be routed to the Oklahoma high point, but will pass just a bit to the west as it connects Capulin Volcano National Monument in New Mexico to the Purgatoire River Canyon in Colorado.