Bronze Art and Canyons....In the Kansas Prairie!



Buffalo Bill Cody

 Thursday October 14 - Wakeeney, KS to Denver, CO

Entrance to Lake Scott

Down in the gorge-Lake Scott

We slept soundly in a cabin in this KOA last night, Up and packing early, cooking breakfast on my trusty MSR Pocket Rocket stove - we eat as the sun is rising over the prairie. Absolutely beautiful and beyond description (as much of what we saw on this trip is-we'll do our best). We herd The Beagles into the van, then head 30 miles south to Lake Scott State Park, my running venue for today. About 10 miles out from the park, we round one of the very few curves in Kansas, and.......... holy crap! Right in front of us, in the middle of the Kansas prairie, aka middle of nowhere, is a huge, I mean HUGE, bronze statue of William F. Cody, aka Buffalo Bill, astride his horse taking aim at a buffalo next to him. This artwork was immense! Behind the hill the statue sat upon was a parking lot where a kiosk gave information about this Kansas Prairie son and and his exploits. Wow. Just pops into view in the middle of the prairie. If you don't get off the Super Slab, you don't get to see stuff like this.
Ten miles further down the road we come to  Lake Scott State Park. We turn onto the park road and, whoooaaaaa........... down, down, down we descend, twisting and curving as we head for the visitor center at the lake. Cliff rock walls now tower above us - beautiful trees and grass surround us, all around a large, beautiful lake. A totally different ecosystem in the middle of the prairie. Amazing. Who says the prairie is boring? (answer: the people on the Interstate!). I had a great hilly run, actually climbing out of the gorge on up to the prairie and back, while Roo ran Gretchen & Duncan around the lake. A very quick, very cold shower (no hot water) had me refreshed from the heat of the day.
After a snack, we visited the northern most ancient pueblo ruins ever found in North America- -right here in this park, in Kansas. You usually don't associate Pueblo Indian ruins with Kansas, but here they are.  Fascinating. Our visit done, we bid goodbye to Scott Lake S.P., climbed back up to the prairie, then caught KS Highway 40 west to Limon, Co. Hwy 40 has to be the second lonliest road in America, only because of it's shorter length. US Hwy 50 through Utah & Nevada holds the lonliest road designation.We were the only car on the road for miles and miles, and yes, "we could see for miles and miles and miles and miles and mmmmmiiiillles.........oh yeah." Bad place for a breakdown -but absolutely gorgeous and quiet. Mingling with locals in some of the teeny towns we went through gave us a new perspective on how people really live outside of suburbia. Eye opening.

Ruth & the Pueblo Ruins

Onward to Limon, CO to catch I-70 again, then motoring on to Denver, our stop for the night. Tomorrow, Ruth will be speechless for hours (hard to believe) as we leave the beautiful Kansas Prairie and begin our ascent of the Rocky Mountains..........