Kansas and Eastern Colorado

Willow Lake

Reluctant as we were to leave the banks of the Missouri River, we needed to press on.  We decided to hunker down over the fourth of July holiday in Tuttle Creek State Park in eastern Kansas. It as an uneventful few days where there wasn't much to do, but we got laundry done and did a lot of walking around the campground and a long the creek.  The park was below a large dam holding back a 12-mile-long lake and had lots of roads for bike riding and a few small lakes, one of which, Willow Lake, was right behind our campsite.

Tuttle Creek fishing area

Mexican feast with homemade guacamole, vegan nacho sauce and roasted potatoes. 

The trek across Kansas was uneventful--endless corn fields and low hills. We camped for one night at a motel/campground (actually a muddy dirt lot) which at least gave us a nicely-colored sunset.

Eastern Colorado was even more bleak than western Kansas with mostly flat grazing lands and huge windmills. But near the end of our driving day we got our first view of the Rocky Mountains and breathed a huge sigh  of relief!

We spent a few nights in Florence, Colorado, just on the western edge of the prairies and got in a good bike ride through the interesting old mining town and along the Arkansas River.

There were many sculptures carved into the tall stumps of trees along Florence's streets

Lynnae makes friends with a local!