Black Mesa, Summit in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, United States.

Black Mesa is Oklahoma's highest point located in the state's western panhandle within a nature preserve. The site features shortgrass prairie, rolling foothills, and vegetation including junipers, shrub oaks, and cacti.

The mesa's basalt cap erupted from the Raton-Clayton volcanic field three to five million years ago, filling a Pliocene stream channel; erosion later left the lava perched on a ridge. From 1935 geologists and paleontologists worked its outcrops, recovering over eighteen tonnes of dinosaur bones, including stegosaurus and diplodocus. In the late 1800s and early 1900s outlaws such as William Coe and Black Jack Ketchum used the lawless no man's land, building Robbers' Roost with a blacksmith shop, gun ports and a piano.

The preserve displays native high-plains plants adapted to dry conditions, including junipers, shrub oaks, and cacti that have thrived here for generations. Visitors walk through a landscape shaped by these species over centuries.

The hike to the summit is manageable for visitors with moderate fitness and takes several hours round trip. Bring plenty of water and sun protection, as the trail crosses open terrain with little shade.

The mesa's basalt cap, 600 feet thick and up to 8 miles wide, erupted from a vent in the Raton-Clayton volcanic field 3 to 5 million years ago and filled a Pliocene stream channel. Erosion later stripped the softer Ogallala and older rock on either side, leaving the lava perched as an inverted valley.