The Monuments of the High Plains

A 200 mile drive west took us to Oakley, Kansas, our next stop.  At some point we were now on the High Plains -- mostly flat land where we could see for miles, going gradually up.  By the time we reached Oakley the altitude was 3000 feet. 

We checked in to our home for the night, chatted with the owners for awhile, parked, unhitched, and jumped into the Subaru for a 30 mile drive to Monument Rocks.  

After getting off the main road we had to travel about 7 miles on a dirt road -- but we remembered that this was one of the reasons we bought an all-wheel drive Subaru. 

Enough with the car commercial. 

 

Monument Rocks are chalk formations that reach a height of up to 70 feet, and they are sometimes referred to as the Chalk Pyramids.  They were formed 80 million years ago and include a variety of buttes and arches.  They are one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas.  (We haven't yet discovered what the other 7 are.) 

 

 

 

 

Across the road from the Chalk Pyramids are some smaller buttes that are orange/gold in color and when the sun shines is a particular in a particular way they sparkle.  These formations are behind a barbed wire fence on private property, so we could only view them from the road.  But they certainly glowed as the sun was going down!

We headed back to the RV Park, stopping to take pictures of a bigger-than-life sculpture of Buffalo Bill Cody killing a buffalo.  If you're wondering why this is in Kansas:  this is where Bill Cody won his nickname in a buffalo shooting contest held in the town of Oakley.  The competition was between Cody and William Comstock,  two buffalo hunters.  Bill Cody brought down more buffalo so he officially became known as "Buffalo Bill". 

 

For more pictures of our most recent travel in Kansas, click Kansas - Great Plains.