Our 12th week on this 52 week, 48 state epoch had us in the great state of Kansas. I have some history here but I hadn’t spent any real time in Kansas since I got booted from college back in 1995! Honestly, I was never really interested when I was a punk college kid, so I was actually kind of interested to see what kind of fun we could have here now that I am an “adult”. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised!
Memory #1 – Seeing Family!
We dropped down into Kansas from Nebraska City, Nebraska just in the nick of time as there were multiple flash flood advisories for the days following our departure. Fortunately, we didn’t hit any real weather and made it safe and sound into Topeka, Kansas after bit of a drive.
We stayed at Hilltop Campground in North Topeka. It was the only place in the area I could find – probably because of Labor Day. We used our Passport America card and got a really reasonable rate. The park was small and the owner had inherited from her mother who had built the place back in the 1970s. She was very nice and did her best to take care of us while we were there.
It was a short drive into Topeka to see the capitol building. Maybe 20 minutes. The building itself was very nice. It had undergone a recent renovation that went WAY over budget, but you could tell. The grounds were in great shape and the building immaculate. We checked out some the statues, took some pictures and were off.
We grabbed a bite to eat at a little Italian place, Pizanos if I remember correctly. They had some really delicious food and Kari snuck out with some tiramisu!
The next morning we were out at 0’dark 30. Whatever that means… It was early, but it was for a VERY good reason!
It had been nearly 3 full months since we have seen family. For many people, this is the norm. They may be used to even longer periods of time without being physically close to family – but for us that is NOT the case. And we knew this would be one of the hardest parts of being gone for a full year.
Thankfully, my mom and step-dad were willing to take a bit of a drive east from Colorado to come visit us in the middle of nowhere Kansas. A place the locals call their oasis.
They came into Scott City, Kansas the night before and met us at our campground – Lake Scott State Park – the next day. It was so nice to see familiar faces again! They guided us to out campsite and watched attentively as I attempted to back our enormous 40 foot 5th wheel into our spot (I know that is why they came early, they didn’t think I could do it – kidding! Kind of!).
We sat around and talked for a while at the campsite and then made our way back into Scott City for some really good food at Tate’s. Stayed there for a couple hours and decided to go check out Monument Rocks just a few miles back past our campground.
Memory #2 – Monument Rocks
This place falls into the category of, “How did that get there?!?”. Off the 2 lane highway, we headed east on a dirt road for about 10 miles. For the first three quarters of the drive you are literally driving through corn fields. And you are thinking that this place is really just a hoax and at any time some crazy farmer is going to pop out of a corn field with a shotgun and who knows what after that.
Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. We rounded a corner and went down a hill to be greeted by a large herd of cattle blocking the road – and our first views of Monument Rocks.
And as advertised, they were pretty cool! 3 or 4 relatively small formations of sandstone plopped right in the middle of nothing. They were beautiful and seemed very misplaced. What was equally bazaar was that there were around 10 or so other people walking around and taking pictures of there crazy rock formations. Of all the places in all the world, there were 10 or so crazy people in the middle of a corn field, in the middle of nowhere. Pretty cool stuff!
Memory #3 – Lake Scott
If you have ever been to Kansas, especially western Kansas, you know that there isn’t much to see. Lots of flat. Lots of blue sky. But not much else. As we were driving toward our campground at Lake Scott the first day, we were beginning to wonder about what we had got ourselves into. There were no indications of water anywhere along the way. Even after we turned off the highway and were only a few miles from the phantom lake – we still couldn’t see any signs of water. It really wasn’t until we got the the gates of the state park that we saw anything. But once we got in, we were very happy with our choice.
The campsite were very spacious. Ours had a ton of shade. We had a view of the lake just behind us and there was nobody there for the week! Our kind of camping! We stayed here for most of the week and it was very relaxing!
We took a few quick bike rides, one of them to see El Cuartelejo, which was a reconstructed foundation of an ancient Native American pueblo. It had 7 rooms – though we could only make out 6 and was said to be a pretty advanced living space.
We also took a quick hike to Battle Canyon, which apparently was the last real battle between the Native Americans and the US Soldiers to take place in Kansas. There was a small cave where the women and children were hidden during the altercation. Eventually, the tribe was able to flee by night and made it safely up into Nebraska.
All in all, Lake Scott was a very interesting little place to visit – we were gald to have found it!
Memory #4 – Dodge City and Boot Hill Museum
We left for Dodge City Saturday morning. Technically, we stayed in a nice little campground in Kinsley, Kansas and drove a half our back the way we came to check out Boot Hill Museum in Dodge City.
This was a pretty fun place to visit. We got there a little late, so were were kind of rushed – but we made the most of the time we had. After getting our tickets to enter, we wated a 15 minute video about the infamous gunslinging town. How it got started and how it matured over time. It was pretty interesting to hear all that was said to have gone on there.
Then we walked up to an area that talked about the Native Americans that were in the area and had many interesting artifacts from that time period. There was also a neat little section that housed a room full of the fashion of the day for the folks that originally called Dodge City home. Top hats. Suits. Boots. Dresses. All kinds of fun stuff to look at.
We the made our way through the town that was supposedly an exact replica of the original Dodge City. Each little building had a wealth of information about what that business provided to the community. It was a lot of fun to see the old printing presses, the “jail” telling stories about many of the characters of the town and even read stories about the local churches and their struggle to bring some civility to the town.
We all had a good time for different reasons at the museum – great stop!
Memory #5 – Successful Boondock #1
We finally did it! After a flailed attempt to boondock at a Walmart in Helena, Montana, we were able to make it happen in a little town called Independence, Kansas! Our first attempt in Montana was a miserable failure. Too hot – 106 degrees. And the people seemed to be a little cranky. We had someone hurl a shopping cart at us in the parking lot! And then walked off cussing up a storm like we had done something to him.
This time, it was a much different story. Perfect weather. Low 70s. A huge parking lot with a perfect space for us over by some grass. And no one was around. We got some much needed shopping in, hung out for a couple hours and went to bed. Can’t ask for much more than that for a free night of camping!
The Wrap!
Don’t get me wrong, Kansas is no Utah when it comes to scenery. But the places we found were way better than I had expected having spent several months in Kansas back in the 90s. While the drives we pretty monotonous, Lake Scott, Dodge City and Independence were actually fun places to spend some time. And seeing family made it all the better. We had a great time in Kansas – Missouri here we come!