With the summit plaque on Black Mountain.

Summit date: July 1, 2018.

After a very long day of driving, I finally made it to the dirt road leading up to Black Mountain, the highpoint of Kentucky. I had started the day on Magazine Mountain, the high point of Arkansas. That was where the 2018 highpointers convention was held. It would take two 12 hour days of driving to get home from there and right on the middle was Black Mountain.

The drive from Magazine Mountain went smooth. The major highlights were food. In the small town near Magazine Mountain, I stopped at the gas station to fill up. A couple locals were hanging out in plastic patio chairs in front of the station, as you do. One of them asked what my car was (a Toyota FJ Cruiser). He said “we don’t see many o’ them ‘round these parts”. And I believed him. The gas station sold breakfast sandwiches. I got a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit. I didn’t start eating it until I was on the road again. That thing was so good I nearly turned around to go get another one. In the interest of time I kept driving, but dang that was tasty.

My second food stop was in Memphis, at a bbq joint called Central BBQ. This was the third stop on my bbq tour of the south on this trip, with the other two being St. Louis and Houston. I got a pulled pork sandwich. Pretty good. I should’ve got the ribs, which is usually my standard order at a new bbq joint. I think the oppressive heat was making me not think straight.

I spent the rest of the day driving the length of Tennessee until finally arriving at Black Mountain around midnight. It’s a rough dirt road from route 160 to the summit. My FJ is a high clearance 4x4, so I wasn’t worried about the road, but I was deciding whether I wanted to do it in the middle of the night or sleep at the scenic overlook parking area just around the corner from the summit road and do it in the morning.

I went for it. The land around the summit and summit road are owned by a mining company, which is what gave me pause, but it was the middle of the night on a Sunday, so I doubted anyone would be up there. They grant access to the summit, you’re just not allowed to leave the road or summit area. It’s about 1.6 miles to the summit on the dirt road. Along the way there is a giant radar installation. It looked like a giant dome on stilts.

The road wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but I would’ve been a little nervous taking a compact car up it. The final little stretch after the radar up to the summit was probably the worst part of the road. For most people that made it this far they could just park at the radar station and walk a few minutes to the summit. I wasn’t most people. I went up the final stretch no problem and on to the summit.

Fenced area on the summit of Black Mountain.

Creepy selfie as a fog rolled over the summit.

The summit, covering maybe two acres, has various antenna installations and out buildings on it. There are no lights on the summit. As I drove the loop around the grounds, all I could see was whatever my headlights were illuminating. It was pretty eerie. The chain link fences and abandoned looking buildings looking like something out of a horror movie.

The summit itself wasn’t too hard to find. There’s a plaque on a pedestal on the opposite side of the summit from where the road comes up. I started thinking about where to take my panorama from. I had anticipated it being dark when I got there, which I was excited about since I don’t often have the chance to shoot highpoints at night. I set up near one of the buildings surrounded by a chain link fence. I wanted to have a sense of the eeriness I felt. Then for every frame of the panorama, I painted everything in front of the camera with my flashlight. The only light wasn’t from me was the soft red glow from beyond the trees. Not sure what that was from. Between testing and shooting (which required light painting a dozen shots), it took a while to capture all the shots I needed. I wanted to take another one from a different spot, but a fog was rolling in making it almost impossible to get a series of consistent looking shots. Also, the fog was making an already creepy scene even creepier. I packed up and headed back down to the main road.

360-degree panorama of the Black Mountain summit.

I pulled into the overlook near the summit road and decided to stay there for the night. It was well after 1:00 a.m., and I was exhausted. I climbed onto bed and passed out.

The next morning I was pleased to find out that the overlook had a really nice view. It looked out into a fog filled valley. Knowing a lot of the surrounding area is owned by the mining company, I wasn’t expecting much in the way of natural beauty. But, at least from where I was, it looked very green and lush.

View from the parking area on Rte 160, around the corner from the summit road.

Since I was right there, I drove back up to the summit so I could see it in the daylight. Even the drive up the dirt road was very wooded and green. Except for the radar station of course.

The summit, now bathed in the warm light of morning, didn’t seem creepy at all anymore. Black Mountain is often referred to as the ‘ugliest’ state highpoint because of the utilitarian buildings and antennas, but I think it’s actually kind of cool. I’m into abandoned buildings, and while not technically abandoned, I felt like I was doing a bit of urban exploring. I try to enjoy each highpoint for what it is, instead of lamenting it for what it isn’t.

One of the old rusty structures on the summit.

After taking in the summit in the daylight for a while, I started heading down the mountain. Back on the main road, just a mile or two from the summit road, I came upon an unexpected sight: a black bear. It was shuffling along on the shoulder on the road side of a guardrail. Concerned about it being in the road, I passed it and pulled over at the end of the guardrail. I was hoping to divert it into the woods (along with wanting to take pics of it). I got out of the car, with the door open and motor running in case I had to make a quick getaway. As it approached, it seemed a little sluggish. I started yelling at it to scare it off the road, but it really seemed like it couldn’t care less that I was there. It eventually did wander off the road. Once I lost sight of it I continued on.

I didn’t make it too far before coming upon another unexpected sight: another black bear. It was coming out of the woods on the other side of the road. I stopped directly across the road from it. This one wasn’t alone, it had two cubs with it. A mama with her cubs; I wasn’t getting out of the car this time. She just stood there looking at me while I snapped a couple pics. Then she took one step toward me. That was enough for me. I was outta there.

Mama bear and her cub on the road coming down Black Mountain.

From there I started a long day of driving back to New York. Black Mountain, for me, is one of the more interesting highpoints. And seeing it at night definitely made it one of the creepiest.

BLACK MOUNTAIN PHOTO GALLERY:

James Suits Photography

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Black Mountain, Highpoint of Kentucky. Black Mountain, Black of night, black bears… there was a theme.