I and my sister and her photographer husband drove a couple of hours south of Overland Park in May to stay on a ranch and have a photography weekend in the Flint Hills of Kansas. I'm late getting these photos on my blog but my cooking classes and Master Gardner classes have been filling my time!
We stayed in a ranch house owned by Charlie Pilgrim, outside of Cottonwood Falls, Kansas. He was a gracious host, taking us on a tour of the ranch right after we got there. We had to use his "duck mobile" water and all terrain vehicle to ford a high stream to get to the cattle grazing area. His trusty, beautiful and sweet setter Gracie, was our roving companion.
Here's a photo of the stream, which was high, due to heavy spring rains. In fact, it rained our first night there and the stream was impassable the remainder of the weekend.
Duckmobile - it was cold and windy, so my sis was bundled up while I photographed Dave, the photographer, photographing lupines.
Here's a photo of my sister the following day, looking beautiful, as always!
You can see the rolling prairies in the background. The scenery in the Flint Hills is majestic. The cattle were not too sure about the intruders
Charlie, fastening the gate to keep the cattle contained in their grazing area.
Gracie, overseeing her domain.
A few photos of the farm and abstract details
The next day we visited the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. It is part of our National Park system and has a well maintained house built by Stephen Jones in 1878. They have a good video about the tallgrass prairie, which has vanished across most of North America,
Below are photos of the type of stone fences you see all across the Flint Hills.
Stephen Jones house on the Spring Hill Farm and Stock Ranch. Most of the magnificent houses built in the late 1800s in this ranching area are in disrepair. Even though I've lived in Kansas most of my life, I was surprised to find houses of this grandeur on the prairie.
The preserves has several miles of trails. You can see the rocky nature of the land. The scenery changed with every bend in the path.
You can see the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse on the Preserve in the distance.
Close up of the schoolhouse with the old desks inside
Some close-ups of prairie grasses and flowers
Famous Chase County Courthouse at twilight. It's the oldest operating courthouse in Kansas, located in Chase County.
Loved the old time mailboxes in the US Post Office in Cottonwood Falls.
We went back to the Tallgrass Prairie schoolhouse in the evening to try and capture some sunset photos. The storms blew in to the east and we were able to capture some rainbows and dramatic clouds. We learned later that tornados were only about 20 miles to the east. It was the following weekend that a tornado destroyed Joplin, Missouri.
