It's been awhile since I've written anything here! Trust me, we've wandered quite a bit since my last entry, I've just been to busy tired lazy to fill you in on our adventures. We have this wonderful book called "The Kansas Guidebook 2" and every once in awhile Ken looks through it and picks a spot for one of his famous "Mystery Tours" or just a day trip to some new place we've never seen. That wasn't the case today but we did get our background information from the Guidebook before we started out. Today's wandering took us to one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas called the Arikaree Breaks.
We are on vacation. This is the first official vacation of my retirement. It is somewhat special because while I am enjoying my vacation, my friends are back in Wichita enjoying their first few days of school. I feel a sense of freedom that I've never experienced before. I kind of like it! Our journey will take us to Estes Park Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park, Wyoming, the Mount Rushmore area, De Smet and finally Independence Missouri. The trip is bookended with two Glock Meets for Ken-one in Greeley Colorado and one in Hallsville Missouri.
The Arikaree Breaks have long been on my bucket list of things to see in Kansas. We had no time schedule to meet on our drive to Colorado today so we decided this would be a good time to take this little side trip. We headed north out of Goodland Kansas to the town of St. Francis. The first stop on our tour of Cheyenne County took us a little west of St. Francis to the Cherry Creek Encampment Site.
On November 29, 1864 the troops of Colonel John M. Chivington viciously attacked an encampment of women, children and elderly Cheyenne Indians. 163 Cheyenne were killed, the village was destroyed and 600 ponies were captured. Their leader, Black Kettle, wanted to remain peaceful. However, the warriors of the Cheyenne, Apache and Sioux were outraged and sought revenge. Over 1000 members of these tribes assembled in the Cherry Creek Valley of the Arikaree Breaks in northwest Kansas in December of 1864. On January 1, 1865 the leaders of the assembled warriors decided to attack Fort Rankin and Julesberg Colorado, some 90 miles to the north. The warriors traveled north through Devils Gap ( a particularly beautiful section of the breaks) and attacked the fort on January 6-7. 1865. The small contingent of soldiers were no match for the powerful warriors. The fort and supply stores were plundered and vengeance was obtained. Today the encampment area has several metal sculptures created by a local artist to commemorate the gathering and honor the legacy of the Native American warriors. It is quite easy to look down in the Cherry Creek valley and imagine the 1000 tipis and their inhabitants roaming along the creek's edge.
We then returned to the town of St. Francis and proceeded north through town. Shortly outside of town the paved road turned into a narrow dirt road. Back in the 1980's a local man erected dozens of red disc signs throughout the county to label important sites throughout the area. There are 14 of these signs along the road through the Breaks. We stopped at each one and enjoyed the stark, quite beauty of the area. The highlight of the drive was Lookout Point at the top of the Breaks. From here you could see for several miles across the canyons and ravines that make up the Arikaree Breaks. In the quiet, we could hear a cow that was at least a mile away from us, mooing as she ran to catch up with the rest of her herd. We walked down the road a bit and simply enjoyed the view.
The Arikaree Breaks are 36 miles in length and extend from the northwest corner of Cheyenne County to the southeast. They are two to three miles wide at their widest points. They were formed over thousands of years. Glaciers pushed silt and sand forward as they migrated south forming a silty layer of soil called loess. Over the years wind and water erosion carved this unique series of ravines and canyons creating what we now call the Arikaree Breaks. They were named for the nearby Arikaree River. They are now considered to be one of the 8 natural wonders of the state of Kansas. The area is very arid with short grass and cactus throughout. It sits in stark brown contrast when compared to the lush green of the Flint Hills 200 miles to the east. You can easily tell that the area is in the throes of drought.
Once we had traversed the length of the scenic byway we turned back to the south a few miles and then to the west to pick up the even narrower road through the Devil's Gap area of the Arikaree Breaks. This was a little anti-climatic as we passed the pinnacle of the scenic view without knowing it so we weren't able to stop and really take it in. By then we knew we needed to continue west so did not turn back.
One aside I want to mention. Last week I traveled Kansas Highway 36 eastward from Concordia to Marysville. Today I was at the opposite end of Kansas traveling the same highway. We decided that once we finish our Route 66 adventures, we would definitely need to travel the length of Highway 36 from one end of Kansas to the other.
We drove on to Fort Collins Colorado and tomorrow Ken will shoot in his Glock Meet at the Weld County Shooting Range. I think we are in one of the smallest hotel rooms I've ever seen and definitely one of the strangest room layouts. It's just one night and as Tom Bodine always said, they all look alike in the dark (I think).
No comments:
Post a Comment