Cross Country Trip 2012: Tall Grass, Little Towns in Kansas

Today we headed north through the Flint Hills area of east/central Kansas, through El Dorado, Manhattan and on into York, Nebraska, at I-80. No interstates today! These secondary roads are fascinating. We drive through this little dying towns which still seem to have a passion for their heritage, even though the business is gone. Many wonderful old examples of 19th century mid-west architecture; many of the towns still have their brick streets and fancy courthouses or county office building on the square. You'd never see this stuff from the interstate.

We went through the Tall Grass Prairie National Reserve, which is a 10,000 acre expanse which hopes to preserve the native tall grass. Interestingly, its a unique partnership between the National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy. A cattle ranching baron named Jones built the stone barn and house in 1880. Too bad it was raining or we might have gone for a hike!

We also came across the old Pony Express route - that's a topic worth further investigation. In Manhattan, home of Kansas State, we peeked in the brand new Discovery Center as part of their downtown redevelopment project. Very impressive.

Central Kansas features rolling hills and SPECTACULAR fall foliage. The pictures don't do it justice. As we got into Nebraska, the land got very flat and features more agriculture, including a crop we couldn't identify (maybe you know?). There were some fascinating cloud formations as sunset - we weren't sure if we should feel threatened as there was a forecast for severe weather.

Tomorrow heading west along the Platte River to Scottsbluff.