CASSODAY — Ever drive the Kansas turnpike and long to stop and walk across the Flint Hills, at least part of them?
There is a new way to do just that. It’s a series of walking trails through a three-and-a-half square-mile area east of Cassoday known as the Flint Hills Tallgrass Prairie Preserve (not to be confused with the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve near Strong City, Kan.). Here the Nature Conservancy has opened the trails to the public, and it’s delightful, easy walking.
The trails range from a half-mile stroll to routes of 2.5 and 4 miles. The trails are mowed short of the natural Bluestem prairie, the uphill grades are not hard, and the two hours or so it takes to do the entire route pass quickly.
I was lucky in doing it the day after Christmas. The wind was still, and the temperature an unseasonable 70 degrees. As for obstacles, there are a few small streams that require wading or stretching a bit to cross. If you choose to wade, you’ll want shoes that withstand the water. But — at least in dry seasons — the creeks are narrow and shallow.
It may be the overwhelming silence of the trail that is a major part of its beauty. Like all the Flint Hills, there is natural prettiness for the eye. But except for the occasional sharp caw of a crow and the prettier sound of a meadowlark, the silence is overwhelming. I felt a bit perturbed when a small plane droned overhead and broke the spell.
The other sound was that of a startled doe who gave the loud snort that to deer means danger. The danger was me. She and a buck were grazing beside a tree-lined creek when she saw me and bolted to the south. Her mate, apparently ignoring the “until death do us part” part of the vows, raced north. I didn’t see him again. But she stopped atop a distant ridge and watched me for several minutes before jogging away.
The deer were among trees along the area’s major waterway. That stream is the headwaters of the South Fork of the Cottonwood River. It has banks that sometimes are a dozen feet high and many rapids. It also is home to the Topeka Shiner (a small, endangered minnow, not a state legislator). Prairie chickens and deer are the area’s other major inhabitants.
The preserve was purchased in the early 1970s and opened to the public in 2023. Its well-maintained trailhead is easy to find and a good place to leave the car. There are explanatory signs nearby and across the road north as you near the trails themselves. Getting lost would be almost impossible, but in a real emergency it’s possible to look south from almost any place on the trails and see the tops of an electric transmission line along the road.
Open from sunup to sundown year round, the preserve is about an hour’s drive from Wichita. To reach the area, turn south off the Kansas turnpike at the Cassoday exit, turn east (or left) on County Road 300 and travel 6.2 miles. You’re there. Enjoy the view. And the exercise. And the silence.
Bob Rives is a frequent contributor to The Active Age. Contact him at bprives@gmail.com.
