"For The Travel Connoisseur" Kansas by RoscoeGregg

Kansas cannot be appreciated by plane or auto. You must get off the freeway and out of your car. There are no big mountains or huge bodies of water. It takes a person with finely developed skills of observation to love it.

Where the real wild west was

First Kansas is huge. Many vistas are unlimited. There is still plenty of room to get off the beaten path. Sunrise and sunset must be seen to be belived. Be sure to step back occasionally and look around you are now in the great American west.

The film industry has painted Montana as where the historic west was. They as usual failed to read a history book. Kansas is the place of Native Americans roaming free hunting bison, Cowboys driving cattle to the railhead, Wagon trains crossing unlimited praires, pioneers in isolated cabins. The infamous Custer began his blood lust for natives here. The first blood of the American Civil War was shed in Kansas. Keep these in mind as you wind your way over the landscape of Kansas

Kansas is best experienced on the ground

The image of Kansas as flat and invariable comes from sitting in a car and looking out a window interspersed with truck stops. At least get off the freeway. At best get on a bike or onto your feet.

Kansas has several distinct bio-regions. It is where the open tall grass prairie begins. It starts in the east at the end of the tree line. Very much like tree lines in alpine zones.

The flint hills as an example run up through the eastern third of the state. It is one of the last places where real Cowboys still live and run cattle in the traditional way. It is crisscrossed with valleys lined with real American towns. Not the Disney version. It contains one of the largest native prairie reserves on the planet earth.

Kansas is well appreciated standing back from yourself and just taking it all in. But you cannot really appreciate it unless you get onto your knees and look at the natural variety that lives in a “forest “of grass. Laying on your back in native prairie watching clouds drift past is a transformative experience. Watching a thunder storm approach for hours and then feeling the might of it roll over you is a most incredible thing. This is not to be missed.

Come to Kansas and travel the back roads and walk the prairies. Your vision of America, the world and yourself will be transformed.

• Pros:It is a great place to see what the Wild West really looed like!
• Cons:Most people just blast past it.
• In a nutshell:Take your time and change yourself.