Weld County Highpoint Trip Report
Date: May 20, 2004
Author: Layne Bracy
It had been vexing me not to have Weld, since we live 1/2 mile from the Adams/Weld line. We called up
Amy Lenhart, as mentioned by Adam Helman, and she said it would be fine for my wife and me to do the hike,
asking us to park at her duplex on the Terry Bison Ranch. The ranch would be a fun place to bring kids,
as their are tours by bus and train available, with camels, ostriches, a restaurant, trading post,
and, of course, bison.
As we set off on foot, Amy's little white dog, Razz, followed us for the entire journey. He was sure to chase
every hare or antelope we came across. As Adam mentioned, the highpoint is located at a new windmill farm.
There were plenty of bison on the range but they either ignored us or moved away, so we were
never to close to getting gored. The bulk of the hike was uneventful, aside from getting some cactus spines
imbedded at a fence crossing.
As we approached the HP area, we could see that a huge crane was attempting some kind of maintenance on
the nearest windmill. I led us up the butte in the line that would keep us hidden the longest, imagining some
scenario of having to make a break for the HP while the crew led chase. Fortunately, by the time we got up
to the top, the crane had been lowered and no one was in sight.
After tramping out the high ground and taking some photos, we returned to the ranch, about a 2.5 hour trip
for this 2-state hike. We enjoyed bison burgers back at the restaurant and grabbed 35-cent cones at
Little America before heading back to Colorado.