Tampa, Florida — Not since early explorers came to Florida in search of the fountain of youth has there been a crazier quest than that of 47-year-old Andrew Karr.

"We all have things that grab us," Karr told CBS News. "And I just found myself charmed by this."

Karr is what they call a "county high pointer," someone who tries to climb to the highest point of every county in a given state — typically Colorado.

Karr spent some time there, but now teaches at the University of South Florida and lives in Tampa. It got him wondering if he could he climb Florida's high points.

Unfortunately, Florida makes Kansas look like Kilimanjaro. It's arguably the flattest state in the nation and doesn't really have any high points. But if you want to get technical, or topographical — and you are truly desperate for adventure — it can be done.

And Karr is doing it — using maps, apps and good old-fashioned sightlines.

He pinpoints every peak. In Union County, for example, the high spot was in a well-manicured, public place. However, other county high points are often deep in the woods, or on private property.

In one case, it was the backyard of Debbie Mitchell's home in Volusia County.

Perhaps his most absurd ascent was at the front door of a JCPenny in the Countryside Mall in Pinellas County.

"I bought a shirt at that one," Karr said.

Sir Edmund Hillary he is not. But Karr's response is, "So what?" And he has now hit the high points of almost every one of Florida's 67 counties.

"On any adventure, and also in life in general, you have to make the most of wherever you are," Karr said.

"Every peak is equal," Karr said, because attitude trumps altitude. That applies to whether you're conquering Colorado's front range, or just Debbie Mitchell's front yard.

Steve Hartman

Steve Hartman has been a CBS News correspondent since 1998, having served as a part-time correspondent for the previous two years.

Florida, also known as the Sunshine State, is home to warm weather, famous theme parks, nightlife, and plenty of coastlines. People from all over the globe travel to Florida, and it’s one of the few states that’s easy to identify due to its unique shape. At its widest point, it’s just 160 miles wide! Since Florida is a peninsula, the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Straits of Florida all encircle the state on three sides.

The Overall Size of Florida

Florida has a maximum width of 160 miles and a maximum length of 500 miles. The Atlantic Ocean marks the beginning of Florida’s state line, which continues up to the River St. Marys. The Florida Panhandle, also known as West Florida and Northwest Florida, is a stretch of land that sits between Alabama on the west and north, Georgia on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico on the south.

This area is about 200 miles in length and 50 to 100 miles wide. Speaking of its unique shape, the Atlantic Ocean marks the beginning of Florida’s state line, which continues up to the River St. Marys. It then goes from the St. Mary’s River’s source to the confluence of the River Flint and River Chattahoochee.

Before joining the line between Florida and Alabama, the Florida-Georgia border stretches through Lake Seminole. Following that, it extends straight west to the River Perdido prior to descending its talweg to the Gulf of Mexico.

Florida Population

The Sunshine State is one of the most densely populated states, with nearly 22 million residents. There are around 390 people per square mile! Jacksonville is known for being the most populous city in the state, with nearly one million residents.

Surprisingly, there are several cities in this beautiful state that have less than 400 people who call them home. McIntosh, near Orange Lake, has a population of 293 people. At the same time, Marineland has a whopping seven residents!

Peaks and Valleys

The highest natural point in Florida is known as Britton Hill. Ironically, Britton Point is the lowest “high point” in America and stands 345 feet above sea level. Britton Hill, Florida, and the area’s Lakewood Park make a great place to play games and settle down for a tasty picnic. Three nature trails are available for exploring while taking in the local beauty and wildlife. The lowest point, along with the majority of the state, is at sea level with the Atlantic Ocean.

What is the Widest and Narrowest State in the United States?

So, how does Florida compare with the rest of the country? Well, the widest state in the nation is Hawaii. The island of Niihau to the mainland measures 1,500 miles. That’s nearly 100 times that of Florida!

Although many would think that Rhode Island takes the cake for the narrowest state in the country, a portion of Delaware takes the title. There’s a small sliver of the state that is just nine miles wide!

Wildlife in Florida

There’s no denying that this southern state is full of wildlife. While it’s known for alligators, pink flamingos, and the Florida panther, there’s so much more to discover.

There are a plethora of mammals, including bobcats, bears, foxes, and otters, that call the Sunshine State their home.

Reptiles are vital to this state. A variety of snakes, frogs, crocodiles, and lizards are found in and around bodies of water.

In addition, during winter months, over 450 birds can be spotted in Florida!

People love enjoying the beach during the warm summer days, but winter is a popular time for locals to enjoy an afternoon of birding on the coast! Many animals are unintentionally released or got away from captivity; others have accidentally hitched rides on goods from other countries, leading to invasive species.

Is Florida Worth a Visit?

This state is one of the most popular states to travel to in the United States. Whether you’re looyou’reo take the family to Disney World in Orlando or have your breath taken away on the Seven Mile Bridge, there’s sothere’s for everyone.

Retirees enjoy the timid winters that average around 57 degrees, and summers stay relatively tolerable with highs in the upper 80s.

However, one reason people avoid visiting Florida is due to the hurricane season. If natural disasters are a fear of yours, consider traveling to the state anytime between December and May!

Truthfully, with the oceanside sunsets, bustling night clubs in Miami, seeing the 2,000-year-old Madira Bickel Mound State Archaeological Site, the soft sand on your feet, incredible restaurants and breweries, we find it hard to stay away from the Sunshine State!

Where Is Florida Located on a Map?

Florida is the southernmost portion of the United States thanks to its peninsular shape that juts down and looks like a barrier between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It is bordered by Alabama and Georgia. The closest distance to Cuba is 103 miles (90 nautical miles); the closet distance to the Bahamas is 53 miles.

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About the Author

Kirstin is a writer at A-Z Animals primarily covering animals, news topics, fun places, and helpful tips. Kirstin has been writing on a variety of topics for over five years. She has her real estate license, along with an associates degree in another field. A resident of Minnesota, Kirstin treats her two cats (Spook and Finlay) like the children they are. She never misses an opportunity to explore a thrift store with a coffee in hand, especially if it’s a cold autumn day!

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us? Contact the AZ Animals editorial team.

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The Florida Gulf Coast University women's soccer team earned a 1-1 draw Thursday at High Point University.

"Winning on the road is a challenge, and I think tonight's match will teach us a lot," head coach Jim Blankenship said. "Had a lead but couldn't see it through to a good High Point team."

Fresh off back-to-back home victories, FGCU (2-1-1) rode into High Point (1-1-3), eying its third straight win. The Eagles were 15 minutes away from doing just that in the first-ever meeting between the two programs.

HPU connected on its equalizing strike in the 75th minute, marking the first goal that freshman goalkeeper Olivia Molina has surrendered in her last 334 minutes of play.

Molina was credited with six saves Thursday while facing 21 shots from the Panthers.

Two crucial FGCU saves secured the inevitable 1-1 tie.

Junior Reese Mendenhall's defensive save in the box after a loose ball off the crossbar kept the Panthers off the board early. In the 53rd minute, Molina stifled another HPU scoring opportunity with a full extension save.

FGCU entered the break with a 1-0 advantage courtesy of a redirect goal from junior Katharina Oelschlaeger in the 42nd minute, set up and assisted by sophomore Eden Bretzer's cross. Thursday's goal marked Oelschlaeger's first goal of her FGCU career.

High Point outpaced the Eagles in shots 21-9 and corners 12-5. Offensively, graduate student Grace Paradis led all Eagles with two shots, including one on goal.

The Green & Blue will continue its Tar Heel State slate Sunday at noon against App State. The match will be streamed on ESPN+.

With another successful commencement behind us, recent High Point University graduates are preparing to commence prestigious career paths around the world at Fortune 500 companies, international service programs, public school systems, top-tier law, medical and graduate school programs, and many other esteemed organizations thanks to their journey at HPU. Here’s a glimpse of one extraordinary senior from the Class of 2015:

Name: Alicia Miller

Hometown: Tiffin, Ohio

Major: Miller graduated with a B.A. in Studio Art and Spanish Education on May 9.

Post-graduation plans: Miller accepted a position with Teach for America as a middle school or high school mathematics teacher in Miami-Dade county, Florida – the fifth largest school district in America. “There is a huge need there for great teachers and I feel honored to have gone through an intensive interview process and chosen as a TFA teacher. I would have sought employment as a Spanish teacher in the Miami area regardless, but I feel very strongly about the visions of the program. I also look forward to using my Spanish with the large Spanish-speaking population in Miami.”

How HPU helped you get there: “My education classes at HPU definitely gave me a clear view as to what education should look like in the 21st century and placed me in classes of all grades and in at-risk schools starting the first semester of my freshman year. It has given me more experience than most education majors at other universities, and was one of the reasons I chose High Point University. I knew I wanted to work with diverse students when I graduated high school – my high school was the only public high school in a small farm town with less than 18,000 people. I didn’t get a lot of diverse experiences there and knew I wanted to change that.”

Most impactful mentor at HPU: “Dr. Claudia Femenias. Officially she is my my advisor, teacher and mentor; unofficially she is the woman I emulate. My freshman year I took a conversation course with her on Hispanic Topics. I found out that she was leading a Maymester to Guatemala that summer and I saved up to go abroad. I caught a bug in Guatemala, the travel bug, and Dr. Femenias as my advisor helped me to find a way to double major and travel abroad two more times in my four years at HPU. She is also the professor that has written me more letters of recommendation than I can count as I feel out all sorts of future paths, including the Peace Corps and Teach for America.”

Most impactful moment at HPU: “Dr. Femenias is the common denominator in the wonderful trail of events that connect my amazing experiences at HPU. Dr. Femenias, for one of her classes my sophomore year, offered extra credit to go to a speaker that HPU was hosting. She was a professional artist from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was presenting in Spanish with Professor Nuñez translating. I went and was absolutely intrigued by the presentation since it was a hybrid of my two passions: Spanish and art. A year later when I was talking with my advisor, Dr. Femenias, and I was looking for a completely immersive Spanish experience, I decided on Buenos Aires, Argentina. Long story short, Dr. Femenias asked me if I remembered Fernanda Piamonti, the artist that came to speak last year. I did, and she ended up being my host mother. I lived in her art studio for six months while studying Spanish in Argentina, the dream living situation.”

Advice for underclassmen: “Get to know your professors. Whenever someone asks me the best part about HPU, my answer, without hesitation, is always the professors. High Point University’s greatest available resource is the professors. Talk to them, collaborate with them, open yourself up to them. They have all helped shaped the open-minded individual I am today.”

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PAXTON — A journey to Britton Hill, the highest natural point in Florida, moved one recent visitor to poetry.

“Get lost to get found, Florida’s highest little ground, cows & crickets the only sound, the silence now so loud, time to pavement pound,” an unknown author wrote Jan. 2 in the visitor’s log at Lakewood Park, which stands atop Britton Hill at the north end of Walton County.

Britton Hill, at 345 feet above sea level, is in the unincorporated Lakewood community, just northeast of Paxton and less than five miles south of the Alabama state line.

More:Video from Britton Hill

Florida’s highest point is designated by a monument and signs in the Walton County-owned Lakewood Park at 2756 N. County Road 285, as well as by directional signs, such as one at the CR 285-County Road 147 intersection.

From the small park’s clover-covered ground or its driveway, visitors can enjoy a pastoral view of green farmland dotted with dozens of black cattle.

Next year, county officials might begin promoting the obscure landmark of Britton Hill as an off-the-beaten-path gem.

‘Midget Mountain’

Britton Hill/Lakewood Park is located 28 miles northeast of Crestview and 23 miles northwest of DeFuniak Springs. On an iPhone Maps app, the hill is robotically deemed a “mountain.”

A faded brochure posted on the park’s kiosk lists the high point of each state. According to the brochure provided by the Highpointers Club of Northfield, Minnesota, Britton Hill is the lowest state highpoint in the United States.

The second-lowest, at 448 feet above sea level, is Ebright Azimuth in Delaware. Alaska’s Denali (aka Mount McKinley), at 20,320 feet, is the highest highpoint.

“It was back in 1900 when William “Will” Henry Britton, a timber baron from North Carolina, bought the Lake Lumber Co. in Florala, Alabama,” states a Northwest Florida Daily News article from Nov. 18, 1991 that’s posted in the Lakewood Park kiosk. “Will moved the mill business three miles east. He named the site Lakewood. And in 1904, his brother, Thomas Jones Britton … and several other partners established the Britton Lumber Co.”

According to the article, the floors of New York’s Grand Central Station and Waldorf Astoria Hotel and the New Orleans’ Courthouse are made out of rift-sawn longleaf yellow pine from Lakewood.

The once-flourishing lumber town also is known as being the birthplace of William De Kova “Bill” White, a former Major League Baseball All-Star player and broadcaster who in 1989 became the first Black president of MLB’s National League.

In addition, Jacqueline Cochran, “the internationally acclaimed female aviator and founder of her own perfume company, whose labels include Nina Ricci and Pierre Cardin, spent part of her childhood in Lakewood,” according to the 1991 article.

In 1982, an Associated Press report called Britton Hill a “Midget Mountain” that attracted visitors with mountain-climbing gear. In 1984, the state Legislature approved a matching grant for Walton County to establish the park and monument to mark Florida’s highest point.

Bragging rights

While Walton County’s “Lakewood” isn’t mentioned, the Florida map in Rand McNally’s 2021 Road Atlas does include “Britton Hill, 345 ft., Highest Pt. in Florida.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, “We do not receive many (or any) calls about Britton Hill at the South Walton Visitor Information Center,” said David Demarest, spokesman for the Walton County Tourist Development Council.

Britton Hill “hasn’t really been in our wheelhouse,” he said, because until March of this year there was only one special taxing district for the county’s tourist development tax (TDT) and it only included South Walton. That meant the tax was only collected in South Walton, and therefore may only be legally used to promote/improve South Walton, Demarest said.

Last year, however, voters in North Walton voted to enact a tourist development tax for the area north of Choctawhatchee Bay as well. Those collections began in March of this year, he said.

“After collections have been made for a year, those funds may then be spent to promote and improve those areas north of the bay, and I would expect that effort to include promotion for Britton Hill, leading to more calls for information,” Demarest said. “We’re currently ramping up our assets and knowledge base in preparation for that increased scope of promotion, and I expect that Britton Hill will be a great brag point for Walton County and an interesting PR pitch.”

More:Walton County TDC gets go-ahead for new visitor center

Demarest said it’s important to note that funds raised in each of the special taxing districts still must be used to promote those specific areas, even though both are within Walton County.

“Still, I’m sure there will be some opportunities for synergy,” he said.

More:COVID-19 vaccine tracker: See how many people in Florida have been vaccinated, by county, state

Besides taking a selfie at Florida’s highest point, visitors to Lakewood Park atop Britton Hill can enjoy two picnic pavilions, one of which has a grill. The park also has restrooms and features three hiking trails, each of which is less than a mile long.

“Maybe some day I will move to Florida?” a visitor from Pittsburgh recently wrote in the park’s visitor’s log. “I am retired and getting old. It is very cold in the winter in Pa. and don’t like it no more.”