Last weekend Sarah and I took a trip west and found our way to the Little Apple – Manhattan, Kansas. Destination: The Konza Prairie of the Flint Hills, some of the only existing virgin tall-grass prairie left on earth. Less than 1% of the estimated 250 million acres of this ecosystem remain intact today, most of it lost to the plow before the year 1900. In this pano it is somewhat obvious why this area escaped agro-man. The fertile soils of the Flint Hills are shallow and contain a matrix of limestone and flint gravel. Homesteaders learned quickly that their sod-busting efforts were best spent elsewhere. In the valley you can see some gallery forest, supported by an early branch of King’s Creek, a tributary that feeds the Kansas River. Click on this image to view it full-size in Flickr. Starting my six mile hike about an hour before sunrise, this series was shot just as the first light of dawn was striking the hills.
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 
Beautiful area – and beautifully photographed. K
Every month I drive from Colorado Springs to visit my mother in Ft. Scott, KS. It’s a long drive, and the view I love most is across the Flint Hills. Thanks for wonderful photography.