Flint Hills Waterfalls

Monday, we left Emporia and headed south for more Kansas waterfalls in the southern Flint Hills area.  Our first stop was Elk Falls in the aptly named town of Elk Falls.  We first went to the north side of the bridge following Google Maps, but the road was closed so went around to the south side of the bridge at the end of Montgomery Street and parked.

An old Iron Truss Bridge, closed to vehicular traffic, leads across the river and the waterfall was visible just upstream.

Wow, what a difference from yesterday.  This waterfall was really raging.  Crossing the bridge, we scrambled down to the river.

The water was too high to climb around much, so after a couple pictures, we went back up.  Another path led down from the other side and there was a guy fishing with his dog here.

We got a couple more pictures and the headed back to the car.

Continuing south, our next stop was at the New Sedan City Lake.  We parked at the end of the dam and picked up the hiking trail that led to the Old lake.  It was about 2 miles and the trail was very wet and swampy.  At the first tributary that entered the lake, there was a footbridge to cross.  It was an interesting arch bridge, but it was rather steep and the wood was very slippery with no footholds, so it took a couple times with a running start to get up and over.  A half-mile or so later, there was another of these bridges over a tributary, but this one wasn't as steep so easier to cross.  After this point, the trail followed Deer Creek upstream between the two lakes and there was a lot of water, so I figured the waterfall should be good.  And it was.  Soon, we reached Chautauqua Falls at the spillway from the Old City Lake.  With the really high flow, it was raging.

I first scrambled down to the creek, but there was a lot of vegetation in the way and couldn't get a good view, but I was able to see the lower drop from here.  And it was too steep and too much water to climb higher along the creek.  So I went back up and climbed out on to some rock ledges to get a nice view of the waterfall.

There were three distinct streams flowing down.

Each would have been impressive by itself but all together, it was spectacular.

I think this was my favorite one in Kansas.  There may have been a better view from the other side, but the water was too high and I think it's private property over there.  After some pictures, we started making our way back.  Near the parking, I went out on the wooden pier for a view of New City Lake.

Then it was time to continue on.

Our next stop was at Butcher Falls.  This one is on private property at Red Buffalo Ranch, but the landowner is nice enough to allow public access.  We parked along Road 14 and made the short walk to the Falls.

The sun was starting to pop out, but there were enough clouds for a picture.  I climbed around on the rocks to get to a closer viewpoint.

There were some prickly pears growing in the rocks here.

After some pictures, it was time to go.

We then headed into Sedan and parked at Hollow Park.  A boardwalk led to Hollow Falls.

It's a small waterfall, but in a scenic Little park.  The park itself was worth the stop - really cute little park with a one-room schoolhouse and gazebo.

The gardens here were beautiful.

Lots of shade loving plants and we even saw a monarch butterfly.

At one time, this was a garbage dump; hard to believe looking at it now.

Hollow Falls was our last waterfall for the day, but we wanted to get in one more hike.

Heading east to Elk City Lake and parking at the east trailhead for Elk River Trail, we were going to hike along this trail.  With lots of rock scrambling, it's one of the best trails in Kansas.  But right near the start, a footbridge had washed out over Gordon Creek and there was too much water to wade.  So we headed to the Memorial Overlook back across the dam.  There was a nice view of Elk City Lake from the overlook.

And this is the trailhead for Table Mound Trail, the next best option after Elk River Trail.  The trail started from the end of the parking area and led along the top of some rock outcrops.  Popping out from the trail, there was a nice view of the countryside from way up high.

Shortly, there was a hairpin turn as it descends through a crevasse in the rocks and we had to scramble down through.  We definitely got in our rock scrambling on Table Mound Trail.

Once down, we continued below the rock overhangs and there were lots of boulders, crevasses and small caves down here.

This section to the road crossing was a lot of fun and very scenic.  Once across the road, it became more of a typical trail in the woods.  Although the trail followed the lake shore, it was a good ways from the lake and we couldn't see much.  After a mile or so, we decided to turn back and try and bushwhack out for some views of the lake.  The first spot went to a rocky overlook and I climbed down to lake level for a couple pictures.

We had a snack down here and then headed back up to the trail.  There was a huge spider on the trail near here.

Then we went out to the lake again near the road to a beach area.

It was quite hot and humid so we didn't stay out in the sun for too long.  Back on the trail, we headed back through rocky part of the trail - definitely my favorite part of the hike.  A marbled orb weaver hiding in the rocks.

There sure were a lot spiders out for October.  Soon we made it back up to the top and then back to the overlook parking.

From here, we drove to Independence and checked in to Appletree Inn.  El Pueblitos was just up the road, so we had Mexican for dinner then went back to the hotel.  There was a waterfall at the pool so of course we had to go for a swim.

Then we retired for the evening.

Little Falls on the Prairie

The second week of October, we headed to the Kansas City area to get waterfalls in Kansas and Missouri, 2 more on the 50 states waterfall challenge.  We got to Kansas City Saturday evening and drove to Topeka.  After checking in to the Hampton Inn, we had sushi for dinner at Mizu and soaked in the hot tub before heading to bed.  Sunday morning, we headed south towards Overbrook, and parked along 129th Street next to the bridge over Camp Creek.  We picked up the Landon Nature Trail and hiked north through a field.  The trail was very overgrown and it was lightly drizzling so we wore water shoes for the short hike.  In about a half mile, there was an old railroad bridge.  Turning left, we followed the creek upstream a short ways to Swissvale Falls.  Despite the rain, the water level was quite low.

The water tumbles about 5 feet over a creek wide ledge.  A bit of fall color was showing to make up for the low water.

After a few pictures, we headed back.

Driving west, our next stop was Pillsbury Crossing Wildlife Area.  Pillsbury Crossing is a low water ford of Deep Creek that is protected as a small nature preserve.  Just downstream of the ford is the waterfall.  The creek drops about 6 feet over a creek wide ledge.  Although not very high, it had much better flow than the previous one.

We forded the creek and found a path to climb down to the base for some pictures.  Spanning the entire creek, Deep Creek Falls was very scenic.

I scrambled up to the very base of the falls to get a panorama of the waterfall.

Then we headed back to the car.

Our next stop was Geary Lake Falls at Geary State Fishing Lake & Wildlife Area.  This one is not a  natural one, it's the outflow from the lake and can dry up completely.  I was concerned there might be no water at all, but we would give it a shot.  We parked at the north end of the lake and hiked across the dam.  It was raining now and the lake was very foggy.

Across the dam, we could hear falling water and took a path right to the top of the falls.  There was definitely some water flow although it was not a torrent.

Continuing on the path led down to creek level and then upstream to the Falls.  It was quite scenic, even in low water.

But the rain started picking up, so we just got a couple pictures and headed back.

Our last waterfall for the day was Prather Creek Falls at Chase State Fishing Lake, about an hour south.  Again, we parked near the dam and then hiked across, following the spillway downstream.  The waterfall has three sections, but unfortunately, there was almost no water flowing.  The middle section is the most scenic if there was decent water flow.

But today, only the lowest section really looked anything like a waterfall.

A bunch of branches and limbs had fallen down here, so we moved them away to get a couple pictures.

Just a little fall color was starting to show.  As we made our way back, we stopped to see some of the wildflowers blooming along the dam.

Smooth sumac, goldenrod and even some azure blue sage were blooming along the dam.

The rain had cleared so we could see the lake well.

Across the dam, we returned to the car.

From here we drove through the cute little town of Cottonwood Falls.

After getting gas, we drove a short ways north to Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.  After getting our passport stamped, we headed out for a hike, hoping to see some bison.  A ranger had indicated that they had been spotted along the Bus Tour Road about a mile or so in.  So we followed that trail towards Windmill Pasture.  There were some blue sage blooming along the trail.

It drizzled a bit at first, but quickly ended.  The prairie was quite beautiful and more hilly than I expected.  We passed a small pond shortly into the hike.

After about 1.5 miles, we saw our first bison - two enormous males grazing off the trail.  One kept an eye on us as we passed, but were otherwise mostly uninterested.

We planned to hike the loop with Davis Trail and maximize our chance of seeing Bison and we saw two right away.  But there were a lot more to come.  After about 2 miles, we came to a large herd right across the trail.  There must have been 40 or more bison here, including a number of calves.

We stopped a safe distance and watched them and got some pictures.  We thought they might eventually move along, but this was not the case.

So after a while, we just turned around as there was no safe way to get past this herd.  Passing the first two bison, one had moved on and the other was resting.

We continued hiking back on the Bus Tour Road.

Just after leaving Windmill Pasture, we turned left on Davis Trail and headed down to a stream crossing.  Just past here, some thistle was blooming and a spotted cucumber beetle was on one of the flowers.

The views of the prairie were just beautiful in the late afternoon light.

At the intersection with Schoolhouse Spur, we turned right and headed to the Lower Fox Creek School.

Built in 1882, this one-room schoolhouse had been restored and was part of the preserve.  Then we took Southwind Nature Trail back towards the visitor center.

Near the end, we spotted a green stink bug.

Southwind Nature Trail ended at the Spring Hill Ranch Complex.  The house was really beautiful and not what I'd expect from a ranch house.

It was built of cottonwood limestone quarried from the Flint Hills.  A beautiful old stone wall ran through the complex.

We walked around the area for a bit and checked out the really impressive 19th century ranch buildings, all built of limestone.

The barn was enormous and even the chicken coops were made of limestone.

We were starting to get hungry at this point, so departed the preserve and headed to Emporia to the Hampton Inn and checked in.  For dinner, we drove into downtown and had dinner at Radius Brewing.  It was a really good dinner and the Octoberfest Ale was delicious.  I was glad to try some Kansas beer.  Then we headed back to the hotel and retired for the evening.