First stop: Kansas City.
After spending hours going through Missouri (I found out in MO that Nate was a big elbow fan, just like the rest of us) we hit KC, the beginning of our Kansas voyage. The buildings in the distance stood quietly as if kindly allowing us passage to the wonders that lay ahead of us.
For the first few hours Kansas was placid enough, its rolling hills broken only by the occasional Adult Bookstore ad. About halfway across the 40 mile long state, the landscape reminds you of the Kansas you know and love.
That is, until you leave I-70.
We went off the beaten path to find a little 5 acre state park known as Mushroom Rock. After getting lost a few times (there were no signs for the place) we finally stumbled upon the scene. The pictures speak for themselves.
We then went to the other half of the park, and stumbled upon a rock that concealed an intriguing boulder problem.
We had an ethical dilema whether or not to climb the rock, since it surely wouldnt help the erosion on the rock. After inspecting the soft sandstone we decided we could ascend with minimal damage, so we decided to go for it.
After we both went at it about 10 times (and Nate figured out most of the moves along the way), I finally topped out the problem. The climb wasn't rated on rockclimbing.com, but Iwould probably call it a V2
We left Mushroom Rocks cut up, but happy. Not 10 miles from the park, on some backroads, a nice officer felt like following us for a few miles then pulling us over.
I wasn't speeding, but he claimed my tags didn't match. I think he just saw 2 weird looking kids with a car full of stuff and wanted to investigate. Nothing was wrong so we went along our way.
One year ago I drove through Kansas with my girlfriend at the time, Ali. I remember seeing signs for "The World's Largest Prairie Dog".
We were in a hurry and couldn't stop, but this year I was intent on seeing it. Nate was shy to the idea at first, but after seeing a roadside ad boasting a 6-legged steer, he was sold.
50 miles of adds had us giddy with anticipation. I had visions of bear sized prairie dogs doing the Dramatic Hamster. A few miles later we were finally at Prairie Town (AKA a truck stop in Oakley KS). WAY OFF. It was Sunday and about 7pm.
The Indian sitting at the door wouldn't let us in.
We refused to be denied. We walked around the building, and finally came across a peep hole.
We looked inside to see the zany animals. While we did see some prairie dogs, I'm not sure if they could cliam to be the worlds biggest. Maybe its best we saved our $5.25.
Not 1 mile down 83-S, we happened to stumble upon the Buffalo Bill memorial.
FUN FACT: Buffalo Bill is from Oakley, Kansas, which is probably why he was such a badass - fighting off mammoth prairie dogs on a daily basis.
The giant buffalo that Bill is so ruthlessly attacking (at unnecessarily point blank range) provided another good boulder problem. Metal is way more slippery than rock, so I had to climb up the backside.
As the sun was about to set, we finally made our way to our last stop: Monument Rocks. When we arrived, these 70' high chaulk rock formations were fiercely guarded by hoards of cattle. Luckily for us, these cows were deathly afraid of throaty car exhausts.
The rocks were a crazy sight, formed by the same strong winds that sculpted the Mushroom Rocks.
On the backside of one of the rocks was an intense flock of swallows' nests. When we got too close, hundreds of swallows flew out of their nests into the sky above us.
We left at dust and finished off the night with a few more hours driving to Colorado Springs. The darkness of the Western backroads was broken only by the occasional thunder bolt.
In the end, Kansas fulfilled all of our wildest dreams. We saw some amazing landscapes, ran into some zany animals, and even made some friends. I would say it was well worth the $2.15 highway toll. I think Nate said it best: "We weren't the fastest through Kansas, but we sure did it with the most style"
No comments:
Post a Comment