Atchison

Atchison is the "A" in the ATSF (The Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe, as in the song*), a railroad that rapidly grew to go many other places, including from Chicago to Los Angeles. So I suppose when I was 5, I came through here on the Super Chief during the same summer that I crossed the Keddie Wye on the California Zephyr. I never remember which train we took which way.

This time, it was the end of a long hot day driving through Kansas, I had narrowly avoided a speeding ticket somewhere back towards Topeka and I was looking for gas and something quick to eat. But I also wanted to get out of the car and watch the Missouri River for a little while as the sun set - from the park below the bluff top house where Amelia Earhart grew up.

*Sung by Judy Garland in the The Harvey Girls (1946)

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

Few large ecosystems have been as radically impacted as the prairies of the American steppe. And while the shortgrass prairie of the high (western) plains retains some similarity to its precursor (the plant community is different and cattle have replaced bison), the native tallgrass (bluestem) prairie to the east has been all but eliminated by cultivation.

In the Flint Hills, rocky soils made cultivation of crops difficult, and this led to grazing rather than turning the soil. As a result, there remain some small patches of native prairie. Or at least small patches that with much work can be restored to native prairie. Here, just north of Strong City, the Nature Conservancy and The National Park Service are using various techniques, including fire, to recreate the original plant landscape.

I had imagined spending a pleasant hour or two wandering off into the high grasses, but it didn't quite work out that way. First, it was hot, very hot. Second, they were setting up for the upcoming Symphony in the Flint Hills, which meant that I had to walk a long way to get away from the backup beeps and the noise of trucks hauling gear up and down to the concert site.

Flint Hills

I sought out the Flint Hills looking for diversity in an often maligned (but somewhat justified) geography. For more on this, see the short article by Fonstad, Pugatch, and Vogt (2003) in the Annals of Improbable Research, which confirms that Kansas is not only "flatter than a pancake," but "damned flat."

But some parts of Kansas are less flat than others.

The Flint Hills run through east central Kansas and are named for the scattered flint (chert) that is left behind as the shale and limestone landscape erodes. The rocky soil prevented easy plowing (except in the river bottoms) and was left for cattle ranching - which is why this is one of few places where remnant tall grass prairie can still be found (see next post).

I looped south towards Wichita and then worked my way back north on KS 177 through Strong City and Council Grove (which provided the unofficial high temperature of the18-day road trip).

Mt. Sunflower

It's not every day that I get an opportunity to drive across Kansas, so I wanted to make the most of the roughly 24 hours I had allotted!

Driving from west to east, the obvious place to start is Mt. Sunflower, the highest point in Kansas. Given the general tilt of the Great Plains, it makes sense that the high point is near the state's western edge and, in fact, it's only about 1/4 mile from Colorado (we'll run into the same basic situation when we visit Nebraska's highest point next week).

Mt. Sunflower is on private land, but is well-signed and freely accessible. And the summit is nicely marked - someone put some effort into this! The final approach isn't too difficult, even for a passenger car, and there is plenty of parking. One could actually traverse around the summit without ever leaving the car. The elevation (4039') is clearly noted. The summit register is in a mailbox.

I am adding "highpoint" label to the blog, now that my collection has reached critical mass. I have no intention, or need, to collect them all, but I'll pick them up when and where I can. Note that while I reached the summit of some of these, some remained elusive and we'll have to settle for views from afar.

Other high points on hshipman