Mt. Sunflower is a hill, with a nice view. Kansas is a flat state however, and not very exciting to drive through. I was on my way to Denver, Colorado, where I was moving. I took most of my stuff out of the car, and put it into my hotel room in Goodland, Kansas. I figured I had a couple hours where I would drive down, hit the highpoint, and come back later that evening. The perfect chance to nab a quick highpoint.
The drive took me South down route 27, which has a speed limit of 65. 17 miles later, I saw a sign to Mt. Sunflower, and took the right onto a dirt road. The road goes about 15 miles to another sign to the mountain. 6 miles later I was on another dirt road that said, "1 mile to Mt. Sunflower." I took that and parked at the base of the hill leading to the summit sign.
I ran the half-mile to the top, but I was met with a strong wind that tried to resist my presence. I still made it in a little under 4 minutes.
The dirt road is pretty flat, with wheat fields and a lot of objects dotting the farm landscape, from windmills to objects I can't identify because we didn't have big farms in Connecticut!
With all the farm land, and a less than dramatic highpoint, Kansas certainly touts their precious "Mount." This highpoint is really well marked.
It is nice that Kansas takes their highpoint more seriously than ones in the Southeast like SC and KY which actually are mountains, but have no signs! Oh, and Delaware, who doesn't seem to realize that they have a highpoint, and thus, have no need to mark it, even at the TOP!
Mt. Elbert 14,440', (the highest mountain in Colorado) is no more than 5 hours away from Mt. Sunflower. Quite a difference in elevation and topography!
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