Outdoor Outlier: Flatland Highpointing in Indiana and Ohio

I have had a hobby now for several years to collect all of the 50 state highpoints, I move around a lot so as I move to a new area I usually look up the highpoints in the area and try to bag a few of them. Last week I moved from Colorado Springs to Pittsburgh and along the way I figured I would break up the trip by picking up a few more highpoints. I had already completed Colorado, Kansas and Missouri, so the others on the route were Illinios (which has some crazy restrictions) so that one was out, then finally Indiana and Ohio. Both of these are relatively easy to find, pretty close to my route and wouldn't add a lot of time onto my already 22 hour drive.

Hoosier Hill Indiana:
The Indiana Highpoint was really easy to get to, only a few minutes off of I-70. There are a few small turns but nothing crazy. Here are directions to the highpoint courtesy of Summitpost.org, however I just plugged "Hoosier Hill" into the GPS on my IPhone and it brought me right there.

Hoosier Hill is about a mile from the Ohio border. From Indianapolis, Indiana take I-70 East until you get to Richmond, Indiana. Take route 227 North up to Franklin Township. Go about 10 miles, and then take a left on Bethel Road, follow it for about a mile, and then take a right on Elliot Road, and head north for almost a mile. There is the short trail to the top that is well marked.

Hoosier Hill Signpost

The highpoint is found on a small rise just off the side of a farmers field in a small wooded area. To help you find it there is a really convenient green sign posted right at the corner of the field.

Me atop the "Summit" of Hoosier Hill

Once at the actual highpoint after a lofty summit attempt I stopped to take a few pictures and then hit the road again. The highpoint was actually really nice considering it was such a small one. there was a mailbox with a register (which I dutifully signed) and some cool information from highpointers on this highpoint and the highpoint club in general. There were also a couple of picnic tables and an engraved stone marker marking the highpoint. Pretty cool.

Highpointing information located
in the mailbox

Engraved stone marker marking the India

Campbell Hill Ohio:
The next stop along the way was the Ohio State highpoint of Campbell Hill. This highpoint was another drive up and was located on the Campus of a school. The bonus was that it was only about a two hour drive from Hoosier hill so they were both easily completed in the same day. The only problem I had is that I started the morning in Missouri so I was burning daylight pretty quick and didn't want to get to Campbell hill after dark. When I left the Indiana highpoint it was already 4 PM so I was cutting it close. I pulled into Bellefontaine, Ohio right before 6 PM and I got a little lost trying to find the exact highpoint. I had again plugged Campbell hill into my Iphone and it brought me near the hill but instead to a "Highpoint recycling center". It took me a few minutes to find the campus of the Career Center, but once I found it it was easy to locate the highpoint. Really once you hit the campus all you need to do is head uphill and look for a flagpole, you can't miss it.

This was another one of the "flatland Highpoints" but again despite being an unremarkable hill the town had done a pretty good job of celebrating the distinction as the state highpoint with a nice memorial to the fact. There is a flagpole, a signpost and the US Army Corps of Engineers survey marker all prominently displayed. Pretty cool if you ask me. Again I didn't stick around long but grabbed a few pictures and kept going on my journey. You can see the sun is on its way down which made photography difficult, but I think the photos actually came out kind of cool. Enjoy!