“Whatever else prairie is – grass, sky, wind – it is most of all a paradigm of infinity, a clearing full of many things except boundaries, and its power comes from its apparent limitlessness…”

Hoping to use our new National Parks Pass for the first time, we set off into the Flint Hills region of Kansas, home to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. It was established in 1996 and extends almost 11,000 acres. (These prairies once covered as much as 400,000 square miles in North America.) It’s also the first national park dedicated exclusively to protecting America’s prairie heritage, and the only park devoted to grasslands. The prairies are a subtle but amazing ecosystem of sweeping vistas, rolling hills and an endless sky. In the spring, they conduct controlled burns to get rid of encroaching trees and expose the earth below to rain and sun, enabling grasses to return. The grasses used to nourish herds of bison, which may be re-introduced sometime in the future.

Along the way, we also passed through Cottonwood Falls (Chase County Courthouse, est. 1873, the oldest still in use in KS, made of native limestone and walnut), Strong City (see photo of Main Street), and Council Grove (where we ate at Hays House, built in 1857 by Daniel Boone’s great grandson, and the oldest continuously operating restaurant west of the Mississippi).

Some links:

Our pictures from the day’s trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/heathertamara/KansasTallgrassArea

This slide show is definitely worth a look. The photography is beautiful! http://www.nature.org/magazine/spring2006/files/tallgrassprairie.swf

The Preserve is featured in this month’s (April 2007) National Geographic. Check it out here: http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0704/feature5/index.html

For a good, detailed history of the area: http://www.parktrust.org/tpnp/education/history.htm