6/14/08 Stop 3: Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve

Tall Grass is a joint public/private partnership between the National Park Service,The Nature Conservancy and Kansas Park Trust. 10,894 acres of Park land have been preserved. The Park area includes a Ranch house ,built out of Limestone in 1880. The guide speaks of 450 species of Plants,150 kinds of birds,39 types of reptiles and 31 species of mammals. Several hiking trails are available to those who get permits.





At 12:30 we waited on the front porch of the ranch house.The front door opened and we were greeted a tour guide from The National Park Service complete with the Smokey the Bear hat. She gave a tour of the 11 Room Ranch hour. It was build by a Cattle Rancher named Stephen F Jones.The most interesting part was the Root cellar and several of the underground rooms.





Afterwards we took a bus tour of the Prairie , we went about 7 miles into the pastures of the Preserve. We saw cattle and several of the plants and birds mentioned above. The tour guide I think knew all of them and then some. The bus stopped twice, one at a field of limestone where we saw a bird that flew onto a plant and stayed around, not bothered by the company at all.I must have heard the names of a hundred flowers,weeds,grass types. Most of it went right over my head.

The second stop the bus made was up a hill, with a few 18 miles in any direction. The amazing thing about the view was you could see no modern conviences in any direction. No Highway, no elecritcal poles, no phone poles, nothing except the bus. The amazing thing about the view is had been unchanged since stone fences had been built in the 1880's. It was easy to imagine 40 years before that the land would have been filled with hordes of Bison Buffalos roaming the Priairie, the view Kansa Indian must have seen or people in wagon trains of the Santa Fe Trial. Simply stunning and so hard to leave.

2 Reasons to return
-To see the Tall Grass in the Fall
-The Bison maybe in 2009 will return, plans to introduce Bisons to the Prairie (or Re-introduce).They will start with 25 and watch it grow through the years.

As always National Parks are national treasures. For anyone who thinks all government is bad, visit a national park.

Next few posts will be pictures