Grant County High Point Trip Report

Author: Fred Lobdell

The two areas that are possible HPs for Grant County are located in the Dolly Sods Wilderness. For access to Bell Knob Lookout Tower, park on the Forest Service road heading north toward Bear Rocks at the access road to the tower. The access road has a chain across it but is not posted. It is a 10 to 15 minute hike to the tower and back.

For the second area, continue north and park a short distance south of Bear Rocks, where the topo shows a jeep trail going off to the west. There is a pull-out with parking for a number of vehicles here. The jeep trail is quite evident on the ground, but I was running out of daylight when I reconnoitered this one and didn't want to undertake a 4-mile or so hike that included a bushwhack at that hour. According to the topo, the jeep trail descends into a broad, shallow valley where it intersects a second jeep trail. Turning north on this second trail should bring you to the saddle just east of the HP. From here the topo shows that it would be a bushwhack of maybe a quarter mile each way to the summit and back. But Topozone shows another jeep trail that goes almost to the summit from this saddle. My impression would be that this would not be a difficult HP to do anytime you had an hour and a half to invest.