U.S. State High Points

Showing Michael Schwartz's first ascent dates for climbed peaks

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List Description

The fifty state high points of the United States are an increasingly popular peakbagging pursuit. There is a club (the Highpointers) and several guidebooks to completing this diverse list of peaks.

Of the fifty high points, five require real mountaineering skills: Mount McKinley (Denali) in Alaska; Washington state's Mount Rainier and Oregon's Mount Hood in the Pacific Northwest; and Montana's Granite Peak and Wyoming's Gannett Peak in the Northern Rockies. Another five or so (Illinois, Kentucky, and others) are on private land and require landowner permission or visiting on specially scheduled open access dates.

Most of the remaining state summits are easy hikes or drive-ups. Hiking the cool forests of the Appalachians, exploring the windy, lonely high plains, and backpacking above treeline in the western mountains are all part of the great fun of this scavenger hunt.

This list includes does not include the high point of the District of Columbia. This is the version the Highpointers Club recognizes.

Selected Guidebook(s) for this List

  Fifty State Summits, Guide with Maps to State Highpoints (Zumwalt)

  Highpoints of the United States: A Guide to the Fifty State Summits (Holmes)

Caution: These books feature many of the peaks on this list, but may not have information on all of them.