The first thing to catch my eye on entering the park was this sign. Didn’t really look or sound like Kansas to me. It seems back in the 1600’s there were two groups of Pueblo Indians that fled what is now New Mexico and their Spanish rulers. They made their way North and East and constructed pueblos just like back home using sandstone from the surrounding bluffs. They also dug irrigation ditches for their crops. They were here for over twenty years before being forced back home by the Spaniards.
Jump to the 1890’s and a local farmer asked the University of Kansas to investigate a mound on his property that he had found artifacts in. What they found was the remains of one of the pueblos.
Surrounding landscape.
Old homestead of the folks that discovered the ruins.
Built of hand hewn stone.
Spring where they got their water is still running today.
Barn on a hill.
This part of Kansas is really beautiful in an unusual way. For those of us that live surrounded by forests and can’t see over a quarter mile, it is an awesome feeling to experience. Fields go on forever.
Horizon to horizon, not a cloud to be seen. But you can see the grain elevators in the town 12 miles from where you are.
There’s not much to define a sunset. Just a few fence posts on the top of a sandstone bluff.
Moving on tomorrow……jc
That sunset IS beautiful in its own sort of way. Different, yet still beautiful.
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