Flint Hills & the Santa Fe Trail — Council Grove, Cottonwood Falls & the Scenic Byway

The Flint Hills of eastern Kansas are the last great expanse of tallgrass prairie in North America, spared the plow by the shallow, rocky soil that gave them their name — a rolling, treeless immensity of grass and limestone that stretches to every horizon. This two-day loop explores the human story woven through that landscape. Day one follows the historic Santa Fe Trail into Council Grove, the last outfitting stop before the long haul to New Mexico, where oak-shaded trail relics and stone landmarks line the main street, then drives the Flint Hills National Scenic Byway across the open range. Day two drops south to Cottonwood Falls, whose 1873 French Renaissance courthouse — the oldest still in use in Kansas — presides over a single brick main street surrounded by working cattle ranchland. Nights are spent in the quiet limestone towns of the prairie.