Highest elevation road in your state if you cannot drive to the highest point

[roadman65]

Inspired by another thread, how about giving out the highest place in those states than have no accessibility to their highest points.

In Colorado I know its Pikes Peak as it does have a motor road leading to the top.
In Maine, its Cadillac Mountain on Mount Desert Island.  Accessible by road inside Acadia NP.

Those are only two that I know of for now, but this could be even more interesting than the other thread that inspired this one.

[TravelingBethelite]

US 7 north of Kent in NW Connecticut get very high (above 2000 feet). This is the region the highest point is in, anyway.

[oscar]

Inspired by another thread, how about giving out the highest place in those states than have no accessibility to their highest points.

In Colorado I know its Pikes Peak as it does have a motor road leading to the top.

So does Mt. Evans, and the parking lot just below its summit is higher than Pikes Peak.

As noted in the other thread, Atigun Pass (about 4800' elevation) is Alaska's highest road point.

[Rothman]

 Makes me wonder if it's Whiteface Mountain in NY.  Don't know.  Someone less lazy than I can confirm. 

[iBallasticwolf2]

Summit Peak, MI has a "7" feet walk from a road usable by cars.
Roan High Knob, TN has a 0.4 mile walk from NC 1348 but requires entering in NC. In fact the first several high points listed in Tennessee all require entering or being on the border of NC.

[cl94]

Makes me wonder if it's Whiteface Mountain in NY.  Don't know.  Someone less lazy than I can confirm. 

Confirmed. At about 4,600 feet, the parking area ~265 feet below the summit is higher than the peaks of all but 15 mountains in the state. No other mountain of comparable size has a road leading to the summit.

[gonealookin]

The highest road in Nevada is the one in Great Basin National Park leading up from NV 487 at the town of Baker to the Wheeler Peak campground and trailhead.  I see one source saying the road tops out at 10,240 feet which sounds about right.  The trailhead is right about at the 10,000 foot point, and if you can hike up another 3,000 feet in a little over 4 miles at that altitude you can stand on the summit of Nevada's second-highest peak as at 13,063 feet the top of Wheeler Peak is about 80 feet lower than the top of Boundary Peak, all the way across the state.  I did that hike about 15 years ago; obviously 1 mph is a pretty strong pace on the way up.

[Thing 342]

The highest elevation road in VA is the access road to Whitetop Mountain at 5525 feet.

[Rothman]

The highest road in Nevada is the one in Great Basin National Park leading up from NV 487 at the town of Baker to the Wheeler Peak campground and trailhead.  I see one source saying the road tops out at 10,240 feet which sounds about right.  The trailhead is right about at the 10,000 foot point, and if you can hike up another 3,000 feet in a little over 4 miles at that altitude you can stand on the summit of Nevada's second-highest peak as at 13,063 feet the top of Wheeler Peak is about 80 feet lower than the top of Boundary Peak, all the way across the state.  I did that hike about 15 years ago; obviously 1 mph is a pretty strong pace on the way up.

Did a trip in 2012 where I flew out to Las Vegas, meandered up through Zion and Cedar Breaks and over to Great Basin where I hiked Wheeler Peak, drove over the Mammoth Lakes, CA (Devils Postpile), down to Mount Whitney and day-hiked it, and then through Death Valley and Mojave back to Las Vegas.  One day I was at the highest point in the Lower 48; the next day I was at the lowest point in North America.

[wxfree]

Texas Spur 78, which goes to the McDonald Observatory on Mt. Locke in the Davis Mountains.  It reaches 6,791 feet.

[gonealookin]

In that same area, another fine high-altitude hike is the one to White Mountain Peak, northeast of Bishop CA.  You drive up past the Bristlecone Pine forest on an unpaved road to a gate at about 11,700 feet.  I believe that's the highest publicly-accessible road in California.  On occasion the gate is opened for open houses at the University of California's Mount Barcroft Research Station, and you can drive up to the station at 12,470 feet.  Beyond that, the hike goes up a very rough jeep road, driven rarely and only by persons doing business with the University but at the fringe of the definition of a "road" nevertheless, to a small building at the summit of White Mountain Peak (14,252 feet).

[SD Mapman]

You can get on a sketchy Forest Service road 1/4 mile below the second-highest peak in SD. (7200-ish) I think that's it.

[slorydn1]

NC-128 in Mt Mitchell State Park reaches just over 6200 feet at the entrance to the parking area for the summit trail. I want to to say this is the highest point on any road east of the Mississippi River.

[empirestate]

NC-128 in Mt Mitchell State Park reaches just over 6200 feet at the entrance to the parking area for the summit trail. I want to to say this is the highest point on any road east of the Mississippi River.

Besides Mt. Washington?


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[slorydn1]

NC-128 in Mt Mitchell State Park reaches just over 6200 feet at the entrance to the parking area for the summit trail. I want to to say this is the highest point on any road east of the Mississippi River.

Besides Mt. Washington?


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Including Mt Washington to wit: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Mount_Mitchell_sign.jpg&imgrefurl=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Mitchell_State_Park&h=1936&w=2592&tbnid=Jivo5jVOYAmaiM:&tbnh=160&tbnw=214&usg=__ikTQ68Q6yBcFe5mzjf7XFL-FQ0c=&docid=FswQuaIFVmXzFM&itg=1

[kkt]

For Washington, it's Sunrise, on the NE corner of Mt. Rainier, elevation 6400 feet.  It's accessible approximately Memorial Day through late September, depending on snow levels.

Year-round, Paradise, on the south side of Mt. Rainier is open approximately 4 days a week throughout the winter, more during school vacations, at elevation 5400 feet.

[dfilpus]

NC-128 in Mt Mitchell State Park reaches just over 6200 feet at the entrance to the parking area for the summit trail. I want to to say this is the highest point on any road east of the Mississippi River.

Besides Mt. Washington?


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According to Wikipedia, the Mount Washington Auto Road goes up to 6145 ft, way short of the NC 128's upper end of over 6400 ft.

[froggie]

Wikipedia doesn't include the parking areas at Mount Washington, which reach above 6200ft.  That said, the parking area at the end of NC 128 is just under 6600ft.

That said, given the OP's criteria, neither state high point would qualify for this thread as you can drive almost to the top of both (which also meets the OP criteria for the thread which prompted this one).

[cpzilliacus]

In Maryland on the state-maintained highway system, it is the western section of U.S. 50 in Garrett County, crossing Backbone Mountain (Eastern Continental Divide) at almost 3100 feet AMSL, and it is clearly marked by a sign.

Table Rock Road (which intersects U.S. 50 near the high point) probably goes a little higher than that, but the state high point at Hoye Crest (no access by road) is not much higher at 3360 feet AMSL.

[slorydn1]

Actually I was a little bit off, squinting at the barely visible display from my gps when I pulled up the video I shot from up there. Pulling up my GPS data from my last trip up there I was at 6576 ft at this point here: https://www.google.com/maps/place/35%C2%B045'58.2%22N+82%C2%B015'54.3%22W/@35.7661667,-82.2650833,244m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en

which is where the road loops into the parking lot at the top of Mt Mitchell. If I wanted to be particlulary anal and exclude the parking area then the point just before the road widens out before the first parking space here https://www.google.com/maps/place/35%C2%B046'02.5%22N+82%C2%B015'53.0%22W/@35.7673667,-82.2647333,243m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en

was at 6550 feet. 

However I yield to froggie's definition of what the OP meant.


Side question, off topic:


How do you guys take the Google Maps locations I copied and pasted and convert them into a link that is just part of a sentence-I've seen numerous posts where the word "here", for example, is a link and clicking it takes us to the location the poster wanted us to see?

[OCGuy81]

I believe the highest in California is Rock Creek Road in Inyo County.  It's a county and US Forest Service maintained road to the northwest of Bishop. It climbs to around 10,000 feet before flattening out near a place called Mosquito Flat.

Never driven it myself.

[froggie]

How do you guys take the Google Maps locations I copied and pasted and convert them into a link that is just part of a sentence-I've seen numerous posts where the word "here", for example, is a link and clicking it takes us to the location the poster wanted us to see?

(ignoring all spaces within the brackets)

[ url = http://www.yoursitehere.com ] Whatever you want to type [ /url ]

[JCinSummerfield]

Pretty sure Mt Arvon is the highest point in Michigan whether it's accessible by road or not.

[Rushmeister]

Waiting for Florida to chime in here...

[empirestate]

Waiting for Florida to chime in here...

It's probably the crest of a flyover somewhere. Not even kidding.


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