Harding County Highpoint Trip Report
Sugarloaf Mountain (6,455 ft)
Date: July 18, 2008
Authors: SueAnn Miller and Frank Price
This "mountain" is a cute little volcanic bump in the high prairie of New Mexico and the
excellent previous trip reports make the approach through the Kiowa National Grassland easy.
This year the track was clearly used past the second windmill. It followed a
course suggested by the topo map, so we pressed on to near the saddle. The tracks
continued over the saddle but we did not follow them. Our walk from there was shorter
than any previous report. The red can register included several highpointing luminaries.
A gathering line of monsoon thunderstorms obscured western vistas but we watched a
helicopter string a new power line just to the east as we had a snack atop Sugarloaf.
That monsoon gave us an interesting drive toward Union county and abundant lightning
dissuaded our attempt at Sierra Grande, our second goal of the day,
but this was a "rest day" between more energetic hikes, anyway.