Konza Prairie

October 24, 2016

After the fair in Topeka, it was time to head toward Denver to visit with family.

I decided to travel on I-70 for a little while (60 miles) to get to the Konza Prairie.

I walked on the trails for about 3 miles then I headed toward Salina, Kansas.

Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS) is located on a 3,487 hectare native tallgrass prairie preserve jointly owned by The Nature Conservancy and Kansas State University. The KPBS is located in the Flint Hills of northeastern Kansas (39°05’ N, 96°35’ W), a grassland region of steep-slopes overlain by shallow limestone soils unsuitable for cultivation.

The Flint Hills region encompasses over 1.6 million hectares extending throughout much of eastern Kansas from near the Kansas-Nebraska border south into northeastern Oklahoma, and contains the largest remaining area of unplowed tallgrass prairie in North America. Hence, the vast majority of Konza Prairie, and the surrounding landscape, has not been plowed and retains its native characteristics.

KPBS is operated as a field research station by the KSU Division of Biology. The station is dedicated to a three-fold mission of long-term ecological research, education, and prairie conservation. It is a unique outdoor laboratory that provides opportunities for the study of tallgrass prairie ecosystems and for basic biological research on a wide range of taxa and processes. The station is open to scientists and students from throughout the world.

You will get a pretty good workout getting to the top of the tallgrass prairie

It starts out as a gradual climb through the prairie
and then you see the stairs

The view is worth the effort to get to the top of the tallgrass prairie.

There are benches up top to rest and enjoy the
view.

I would like to spend more time in this area of Kansas, the Flint Hills, the tall prairies, this is the 2nd time I have traveled in the RV through this area. But I did not stay long either time.  Maybe this summer (2017), I will be able to travel more through this area.

Link to my day at The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in 2011.

After this walk, I headed to Salina, KS

I did some grocery shopping in Salina, found an Aldi store, would be nice to find more of these stores in the places I travel through.  I stopped for the night at the Salina KOA.


Next stop: Cedar Bluff State Park

then Colby, KS and Denver