Kansas Visitor's Guide 2007/2008 - (Page 60) For more details and Ready-Made Adventures visit www.TravelKS.com. For more detours Off the Interstate, follow Kansas’ eight scenic byways and storied Route 66 to Great sightseeing and dozens of historic attractions. *Glacial Hills ribbon of highway in Drivers cruising this northeast Kansas are following in the footsteps of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. From Leavenworth, First City of Kansas, to the Nebraska state line, the 63mile stretch of K-7 that forms this byway plays tag with the Missouri River, which marks a portion of the state’s eastern border. You see the river from lofty overlooks in blufftop towns such as Atchison, where visitors also visit the birthplace of aviator Amelia Earhart. Make time to explore intriguing shops downtown. At some points, low-lying roads hug the riverbank. From these spots, you’re close enough to see the powerful currents. Just downstream from Atchison, Lewis and Clark celebrated July 4, 1804, with a cannon salute before heading west again on the river. North of town, at tiny White Cloud, a road winds up to Four State Lookout, with a view of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and, on clear days, Iowa. Farther south in Osawatomie, west of the byway, the John Brown Museum State Historic Site is housed in a frontier cabin once frequented by the fiery abolitionist during the “Bleeding Kansas” era. A few miles southeast, the route skirts two Civil War sites: Marais des Cygnes State Historic Site and Mine Creek Battlefield State Historic Site. Farther south, visitors tour 19 restored and reconstructed buildings at Fort Scott National Historic Site. Founded in 1842 to help guard the western frontier, the fort offers a rare glimpse of this period. You also can take trolley tours of the town’s historic neighborhoods and National Cemetery No. 1. border from Leavenworth south to the Oklahoma border takes you past storied relics of frontier and Civil War history. K-5, I-435, US-69, and Alternate US-69 trace the old military trail beginning at Fort Leavenworth, which was established in 1827. In Lenexa, a southwestern Kansas City suburb, you can visit the Legler Barn Museum, which in the 1860s sheltered Quantrill’s Confederate raiders. *Frontier Military the state’s eastern This 168-mile route along newest scenic byway, which winds through the eastern Flint Hills (just west of Topeka and south of I-70) for 48 miles along K-4 and K-99. The U-shape loop passes through the little farm towns of Alma, Eskridge and Dover. The byway takes its name from the limestone slabs that are the Flint Hills’ foundation. You’ll see shelves of limestone interrupting the vast prairie of big bluestem and other grasses. Look for vintage bridges, walls, homes and even fences made of the durable, honey-colored rock. *Native Stone life along the state’s Get a glimpse of rural Council Grove (55 miles southwest of Topeka) south to Cassoday, you twist and soar through one of the most distinctive, and lightly populated, landscapes in America. Cattle dot the hillsides, modern replacements for the buffalo that once roamed the region. Some 24 landmarks remain in Council Grove from the days when it was a frontier hub on the Santa Fe Trail. One of those landmarks, the Hays House Restaurant, still serves travelers hearty fare. Farther south at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, hiking trails wind through grassy highlands, and you can tour the19thcentury limestone ranch house that serves as the preserves headquarters. In Cottonwood Falls, the 1873 courthouse towers over the red bricks of Main Street, where you can stay at the first-class Grand Central Hotel and sample home cooking at the Emma Chase Cafe. Rock *PostHigh Plains of Kansas, trees are On the scarce. That’s why innovative immigrant farmers, who ruined many a good plow on the immense limestone slabs just hidden by the prairie soil, decided to put some of that rock to good use as a substitute for wood. They split the limestone into post rocks that still *Flint Hills national scenic byway Drive this 48-mile through the heart of the Flint Hills, the nation’s largest remaining tallgrass prairie. Along the winding, quiet blacktop of K-177 from The Chase County Courthouse in Cottonwood Falls on the Flint Hills Scenic Byway. Shopping in Atchison on the Glacial Hills Scenic Byway. 60 Official Kansas Visitors Guide http://www.TravelKS.com
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