Kansas

To break up our drive time from Ozarks to Colorado Springs, we stopped for the night in Kansas. To be honest, Kansas hasn’t ever been a place we sought to visit but we figured since we’re passing through we might as well explore some natural sights.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is exactly that — a preserved tallgrass prairie. At first, this may not seem like much, but we learned that the majority of North American tallgrass prairie has been converted to farming crop land. Only 4% of original prairie has remained untouched and the majority of this is found in the Kansas Flint Hills. An old limestone barn, a historical prairie home, and 11,000 acres of prairie spread wide across the plains.

It was a sweltering golden hour on the prarie, but we were the only people there, the visitor center closed, and only 1 horse and some cows grazing on the pasture. We stretched our legs, sat under a shady tree and enjoyed the quiet solitude while spotting a species of bird new to our eyes — the Kildeer!

After our rest, we drove another 10 miles to Chase State Fishing Lake and set up camp. This cute first-come-first-serve state park boasted a small, clean, fresh water lake and very few others campers. We went for an evening walk and Kelly took a bath in the lake- one of her goals for the trip!

The night sky was dark and the stars shone brightly. Alex saw The Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, and the haze of The Milky Way amongst many other stars.

We climbed into bed, our second day behind us, and fell asleep easily and deeply, anxious to get to Colorado the next day.