Category: Elevation

  • State of the Circle

    It’s difficult for me to believe, but I just hit the six month point with Twelve Mile Circle. So I thought I would take a moment to look back at the site by reviewing some highlights. Maybe I’ll even reflecting briefly upon the path that lead to this point. I wasn’t sure I’d last even…

  • Washington, DC Highpoint Dedication

    Elevation highpoints captivate me from from time-to-time. I’ve visited a couple of state highpoints before (Mount Washington in New Hampshire and Timms Hill in Wisconsin). I also wrote about my triumphant climb to the summits of both the smallest self-governing county and the smallest independent city in the United States on the same day. It…

  • When Categories Collide!

    Here I explore a mashup of two wonderful topics covered in previous posts. I’ll combine the County Highpointers Association and the epilogue to my Smallest County Series. I decided to see whether I could reach the highpoints of both the smallest self-governing county in the United States and the smallest “county equivalent” location recognized by…

  • Australia’s Highest Elevation

    The highest point of elevation on the Australian continent is Mount Kosciuszko of the Great Dividing Range at 2,228 metres (7,310 feet). What is lesser know, however, is that’s it’s not actually the highest point in the country of Australia. The nation does encompass territory beyond the continent. That honour goes to Mawson Peak, the…

  • County Highpointers Association

    Twelve Mile Circle features another extremely specialized geography website today, this one hosted by the County Highpointers Association. It’s easy to find information on the highest point in a country or even one of the individual United States. This information is scattered across the Web in a million different places. But that’s not the case…

  • Highest Elevation in Portugal

    So the highest elevation in Portugal is not on mainland Europe. It exhibits an unexpected twist of Strange Geography. Actually, it sits on an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, some 1,500 kilometers (950 miles) from the Portuguese capital city of Lisbon. The island of Pico (literally “peak”) with its dominant stratovolcano of…

  • Google Maps Terrain Button

    I noticed that within the last few days, Google Maps added a “Terrain” button that shows general elevations by using different shades and shadows. Obviously it has its greatest impact where there are rapids changes in elevation such as mountain or canyons. I’ve had a lot of fun playing around with the feature as in…