Prowers County Highpoint Trip Report

Two Buttes (4,711 ft)

Date: September 12, 2004
Author: Kevin Baker

On the way back from Arkansas, I decided to knock out another southeastern CO county highpoint. The last time I did one of these with my wife, I burned up my car, so she was not too keen on doing anymore with me unless they were actual mountains! We got into Lamar from Wichita at around 4 pm, and made our way south on US-287. We got our first view of Two Buttes from about 7 miles away as we started driving past some huge wind generators. My odometer measured 29.1 miles from the 287/50 junction in Lamar and the county road is now named B.5, I believe, instead of C.

We arrived at the gate and Jenni decided to forgo this one even though the buttes looked very interesting to climb. My car thermometer read 95 degrees but the wind was blowing strongly so it wasn't too bad. I followed the faint trail, then lost it as it ended up heading left to the saddle just above a small rock outcropping. I just went up the west slope and summitted the southern highpoint in 8 min at around 4:45 pm.

I did not see a register, took some pictures and video, then headed over to the extra credit northern butte, which only takes a minute or so to get to. The wind generators were very impressive from here and the views were great.

This has to be my favorite plains highpoint so far. Where else can you get 300 feet vertical in 0.4 mile in the plains? I headed back down to the saddle and jogged back to the car in 5 minutes to keep the wife happy. This was CO county hp #30 for me on a gorgeous, albeit hot, September day.

Hike statistics: 0.8 miles round-trip, with 306 feet of elevation gain.