Kansas: Things to Do and See

1. Monument & Castle Rocks: The Chalk Pyramids and Monument Rocks are names for the same group of rock outcroppings, near US-83 in western Kansas. There are signs at the turn off (6 miles of gravel roads). You can see the rocks in the distance from the highway if you know where to look. Like the Castle Rock Badlands, the Monument Rocks are on private range land, but thanks to the owners, open to the public. The United States Department of the Interior has designated the Chalk Pyramids as a National Natural Landmark.  The 70 feet tall sedimentary formations of Niobrara Chalk were created 80 million years ago when this area was part of a vast inland sea.
2. Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center: in Hutchinson has the 2nd largest collection of US space memorabilia anywhere and the largest collection of Russian space memorabilia outside the former Soviet Union. These are the experts that the other space museums come to for many of their exhibits' restoration.
3. Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve: Surounding the Stong City - Cottonwood Falls, Kansas area was established in the Flint Hills region of Kansas in 1996. Less than 4% of the 400,000 square miles of tallgrass prairie that once covered the North American Continent still remain, primarily in the Flint Hills of Kansas. The preserve protects 10,861 acres, most of it under control of the Nature Conservancy. Legislation does not permit the National Park Service to own more than 180 acres of the preserve.
4. Eisenhower Presidential Library & Eisenhower Museum: in Abilene, Kansas was started in 1962. It includes a Visitor Center, Dwight D. Eisenhower's boyhood home, the Place of Meditation, the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, in a park like setting. Allow about 2 hours if you wish to see it all.
5. 4 Women On The Route Diner: Built from a classic service station, the sandwich and gift shop is a step back in time and a classic slice of Americana, with all the amenities you would have seen along the route 60 years ago.
6. Dodge City: Established in 1856 as a stop along the Santa Fe Trail, it served as a safe haven for wagons traveling west, and also provided supplies to troops fighting Native Americans. Buffalo hunters and traders eventually took over the town which still retains its wild west feel today contributing to its lawlessness.