Climb Every Mesa, Ford Every Wash

The hike to the highest point in Oklahoma

This was my first camping trip with all new gear, and I’ve accumulated much more. At right is me inside the tent, where I tried to emulate the Westin “Heavenly Bed” experience. Who camps with white linens? This was just a few weeks after months of chemo, so I didn’t have much hair. Photos by author.

If you live anywhere east of the Mississippi River and you’ve never been west of it, you’re in for a surprise.

For one thing, many counties out West have more livestock than people — many more! The West raises what you eat. Consider the following:

• South Dakota has four times as many cattle as people.
• In Gonzales County, Texas, there are 1,105 times as many chickens as there are people!
• Lyon County, Iowa, is swine country. They have ninety-one times more pigs than people.
• In fact, thirteen states in the Great Plains and the West have more cows than people!

So there’s plenty of room to roam without seeing people. Just be aware of cow pies.

Beyond the cornfields, the landscape is the most obvious thing you’ll notice out West. Real mountains rise above the timberline as far south as New Mexico! Mount Whitney in California, the highest point in the contiguous U.S., is only 107 miles from the lowest point in the country, Death Valley.

We also have buttes and mesas.

A butte is an isolated hill with steep sides and small, flat tops. A mesa is a flat-topped mountain that looks like it was bulldozed flat, and you’ll see them…