Our hottest day of the trip so far started off as the coolest morning. We left the hotel at 8am and it was 70 degrees. For the first 30 minutes Michele had to use her seat heat. Rob changed the route so that we could ride the entire 42-mile length of Kansas 177, a scenic byway. We rode south on the I-35 toll road for about 30 miles. We arrived at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve around 9:30.
It is a cooperation between the National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy. The NPS website says tallgrass prairie once covered 170 million acres of North America, but within a generation most of it had been transformed into farmland. Today less than 4% remains intact, mostly in the Kansas Flint Hills, so this 11,000 acre preserve is a last remnant. Stephen Jones built the house and had dreams of a cattle ranch.
It was completed in 1881. The outbuildings and barn were completed a year later in 1882. The house benefitted from natural springs in the area and local limestone. The barn is now a mini museum with old farm equipment and a little video about the history.
Mr. Jones owned his property for 10 years but lived in it only for 5 years since his family moved to Kansas City. The house is four floors, 11 rooms and really nice inside. It didn't have electricity until 1941.
After touring the house, we took an hour walk up the hill and back to see if we could spot the buffalo herd that lives there. Rob saw two buffalo in the distance. You can see the buffalo in the below picture. It is the brown spot on the horizon, right of the gravel road. Michele wanted to be sure we kept a safe distance from them.
The vistas of the prairie were pretty amazing! It was getting hot and we had to hit the road, so we didn't continue further on the path. We suited back up and left at 11am.
The scenic route took us north on 177 to US56 West. It took about an hour and 40 minutes to get to the planned lunch stop in McPherson, KS. Rob found a barbecue place, Woodies Smokehouse BBQ, and a nice picnic area in front of the town courthouse. We ate lunch surrounded by the colorful fish and water fountain.
After lunch Michele put on her cooling neck towel. Back on the road, we kept west for 3 hours towards Dodge City. We saw a high temp of 99 degrees and winds were 15-20 mph out of the south for most of the day. With about an hour and a half to go, we stopped in a shady spot and refreshed the neck towels and had a water break.
About 30 minutes from Dodge City we were surrounded on all sides by a huge windmill farm. A few had workers fixing them. Can you see them? The small dot on the nearest windmill's lower blade is actually two men on a suspended scaffold. The scale of these things is enormous.
We arrived at our hotel in Dodge City by 5pm and walked across the street to get Mexican take out. Our total mileage today was 345 miles.
Tomorrow we are looking forward to riding to New Mexico and seeing the Red River area and the mountains.
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