De Baca County High Point Trip Report

Loma Alta (5,583 ft)

Date: June 4, 2002
Author: Fred Lobdell

Scott Surgent's directions are excellent for this one. However, two points should be noted. First, the road he mentioned can be driven right up onto the mesa by an ordinary passenger car. Just drive to where there is a water tank on the north, near the height of land on the dirt road, then turn right and drive past the tank on the east side and follow the road up onto the mesa.

Second, no previous reports have mentioned a register. I agree with previous report writers that the highest area appears to be near the western edge of the mesa, near where BM "Albert" (dated 1974) is located. A few feet east of the bench mark, near a large cholla, is a small cairn, and inside the cairn is a glass coffee jar containing a register. The register was emplaced by Mark Nichols in 1997 and signed in 2000 by Scott Holzhauser and Sue Brandes and, later the same year, by Amy Sollars. This is the second register placed by Mark that I've signed, the other being at Promontory Point, HP of Gila County, AZ.

I would also caution cohpers that the railroad tracks mentioned in Scott's report are quite active. A northbound train passed while I was on the mesa, and a southbound train sounded its whistle as I approached the tracks as I left the area, and I had to wait for a thousand-car freight to pass.