Road Tripping Through the Great Plains
Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico
I had promised the kids an “epic” road trip for the summer of 2018. They had opted out of going on the school music trip for fifty to Denver, Colorado. Instead, we would take a camping road trip for three to the Grand Canyon, Zion, and Bryce Canyon. I'm convinced we made the right choice!
I'd like to be fancy and say that we embarked on a journey to finish the Grand Circle Tour we started last year. That sounds epic, right? That had never been the plan though. I had never thought about doing the whole tour, much less ever considered splitting it into two trips. To be honest, I hadn't even considered revisiting the Grand Canyon at all.
I wanted to take the kids to Bryce Canyon. The last time I visited Bryce was on a family road trip right after I graduated from high school and I had always wanted to go back! At the time, I considered it my favorite national park. Eventually, I decided we needed to see the Grand Canyon South Rim, as well. I had visited the North Rim on that same family trip, but I was a baby the last time I went to the South Rim.
However flawed my thoughts may have been, I wasn’t sure if we’d like the Grand Canyon as much as Bryce Canyon. My old photos of Bryce Canyon were amazing…the North Rim…not so much. I remembered it as “just a hole in the ground.” I was curious to see if the South Rim was more impressive, but just in case it was not, I planned our route to visit the Grand Canyon South Rim first. Since we had just driven through Colorado on our last big road trip, I decided we’d take a drive through western Kansas for this trip.
Day One
Monday, June 18, 2018
We covered a lot of miles on our first day. We departed at 10 am. Highway 81 to Norfolk, NE was pretty. Everything in Nebraska was pretty and green with a few wildflowers along the sides of the road. We stopped at Target in Norfolk for a box of colored pencils that included a black one. Megan loves to draw and color on the road and her black pencil was missing.
Crane Trust Nature and Visitor Center
We also stopped just south of Grand Island, NE at the Crane Trust Visitor Center. Located on the Platte River, the visitor center explained about the migration patterns of the sandhill cranes. It was set up to attract them to a good location along the river. We saw no cranes while we were there, but they had a small herd of bison in a pen. The grounds also featured a paved walking path with a bridge over the water. We walked about half a mile round trip and then got back in the truck to keep going. It was too hot and buggy to go any further and we had places to be! We were just over halfway to our campground on a nine hour drive.
We continued on I80 through Kearney, NE and took Highway 183 into Kansas. Somehow we missed the turn to cut across Kansas at an angle and we made a big corner instead, passing through Philipsburg, KS. That added 18 miles and who knows how much time to our route. Then we got stopped for road construction and had to wait what seemed like an eternity for the pilot vehicle. At the time, I wondered how we had lost an hour when we only made two twenty minute stops all day, but I figured out where I went wrong after we got back home.
It was a pretty route for a while and then it was flat. Draw a line on a piece of paper with a straight edge and that is how flat it was. It's no wonder some people think the earth is not round. They've visited western Kansas! I had planned for us to visit Monument Rocks along the way to our campground, but after losing almost an hour with those two setbacks, there was no time to stop if we wanted to find a campsite before dark.
Lake Scott State Park
As we approached the turn for the state park I wondered where it would be because there had been NOTHING for miles. It’s almost disconcerting how flat it is out there, but we turned, went around a corner and immediately dropped down into a valley. A couple more turns brought us to Lake Scott, an oasis on the plains. We arrived before dark, which was a good thing because it was very tough to decide on a first come, first serve campsite.
We were like Goldilocks and the Three Bears as we drove around to check out all of the different campgrounds. The first campground was full of RVs, so we didn’t want to be in there with our tent. The next campground was full of geese and bird poop…definitely not our first choice. There would’ve been a nice spot on the other side of the lake, but I wasn’t keen on setting up in an almost empty campground next to a lone van.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, the bird poop campground had just the right amount of campers we were comfortable with, so we went back there to do another couple spins around that campground. Of course, the spot with the least bird poop or geese, happened to be on a sloped site next to a tent that looked like it had been parked there and abandoned. Do I make tent camping sound fun or what??
After a quick peek inside the tent door that was left hanging open, we decided we probably would not see anyone camping there that night and we chose the site next to it. There was plenty of space in between our tent and the abandoned one, even if the owner did come back that night. By that point, the sun had set, but we still had plenty of light and a beautiful view of the lake as we set up our tent.
Day Two
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Since we had to backtrack to Monument Rocks that morning before we could move on, we were up with the birds…real ones, not just the ones on my phone alarm. Megan had her minifigs of the three of us along again on this trip and the campsite post is always a favorite spot for a photo op while Joey and I take the tent down. We stopped at a Pueblo ruin on our way out of the park and we saw an amazing sky on our way to Monument Rocks.
Monument Rocks
When I was planning this trip, I had scoured my maps looking for something interesting to see in western Kansas and that’s how I found Monument Rocks, a National Natural Landmark, as designated by the Department of the Interior. The rocks are chalk “pyramids” and are quite the oddity out in the middle of the very flat, western Kansas.
I had spotted the sign for Monument Rocks on our drive the night before, about 10 miles north of where we turned on the main highway. From there, it was 7.5 miles of gravel road. It didn’t take us long, but I was glad I had not tried to squeeze it in the night before. I would not have wanted to have been out wandering around on unfamiliar gravel roads just before dark, but they were in good shape for daytime travel.
Monument Rocks is located on private land, but the owners graciously allow tourists to take a look around and they have an interpretive sign to explain the geography.
Mid-America Air Museum
We left the chalk formations at around 8:30 and took another flat two and a half hour drive to Liberal, Kansas for our next stop, Mid-America Air Museum. The museum is advertised as having a lot of unique aircraft, but unfortunately, they are all packed in so tightly that it’s very tough to get nice photos of the planes.
We were greeted by a volunteer who asked if we would like a tour. Having had such a great tour at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum, we took him up on the offer. I regretted that choice instantly when he commented on the whereabouts of my husband. I’m perfectly capable of traveling with a couple of teenagers on my own, thanks. [Insert eye-roll here.]
I continued regretting my choices when I realized this guy was going to drone on about his political opinions that were completely unrelated to the aircraft in the building. I’m not interested in other people’s politics, whether they are on the right or the left…especially when I am on vacation! Just tell us about the planes!
No matter how disinterested we must have all looked at the time, this guy was not good at reading the room. He stopped in one spot, too far from the entrance for us to escape, and lectured Joey on college vs. the military. I’ll admit, we were way too polite to get rid of him, but we needed to get out of there. Thankfully, another “victim” came in as we were getting close to the entrance, so I pointed them out and we were finally able to escape. What should’ve been a one hour stop had somehow turned into a very long two hour tour.
We’re Not In Kansas Anymore
We had a three hour drive to our next stop and that closed at 4:30 pm, so we had to hustle. We passed the Oklahoma border and stopped for gas somewhere along the way. Thankfully, the drive across the Oklahoma panhandle didn’t last long; the most interesting scenery again, was the sky! Someday, I’d like to go back again and take Route 66 across Oklahoma, but at the time, I hadn’t thought of that as a route possibility.
Land of Enchantment
It’s a good thing New Mexico declares that it’s the “Land of Enchantment” on their signs because you wouldn’t be able to tell from looking around the one located on Highway 56. Besides their brightly colored state sign, there is nothing but flat land as far as our eyes could see! The clouds were still enchanting, though.
The kids gained a new state, bringing them both to 27 states visited. My last visit to New Mexico was in 1980, so we were pretty much entering new territory for me, as well! The terrain started to gradually get more interesting as we gained elevation.
Capulin Volcano National Monument
After the lovely time we spent at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument the previous summer, I had no qualms about adding an unknown-to-us volcano to our travels. I had envisioned spending more time there, but at least we still had an hour before they closed. Not ideal, but it was plenty of time for the scenic drive and a quick look around the visitor center, where we picked up Junior Ranger booklets.
Volcano Road spirals around the volcano all the way to the top. I had read that the road was a little intimidating due to the steep drop-offs along the side going up, but I didn’t think it was too bad. It’s a short drive and worth it for the views, which were spectacular! Land of Enchantment, indeed!
Considering that we woke up at 2827 feet and we were now at 7877 feet, it was probably a good thing there was no time for a hike around the rim of the volcano! Instead, we took the Crater Vent Trail down into the volcano. Photos don’t do this justice, but it was interesting to see the bits of lava here and there. I think if one could show up already acclimated to the higher elevation, it would be well worth the time to walk the one mile rim trail. You’re supposed to be able to see four different states from the top. There are also some trails at the bottom of the volcano that look like they might be interesting to explore.
We had enough time to take in the views and drive back down to the visitor center so the kids could earn their first Junior Ranger badges of the trip. We always enjoy chatting with the park rangers and this guy was great! He was from New York and said he was always happy to see teenagers doing Junior Rangers. I had to chuckle when he asked if the kids wanted to wear the flat hats and the kids both told him that no, they didn’t need to. He says “so what I am hearing is that you both want to wear a hat!” And so they did.
We had another almost four hour drive to get to where I wanted to camp that night. My original plan had been to camp somewhere in the mountains near Taos, New Mexico, but right before we left home, there were reports of wildfire closures at the campgrounds in the area. We needed to be in the Santa Fe area early the next morning, so Cochiti Lake Recreation Area would be our home for the night.
When we arrived in Santa Fe, we needed gas and food. Upper Crust Pizza had good reviews, and it was near the old downtown area, so that’s where we headed after topping off the tank at the edge of town. Also downtown, the Oldest House was high on my list of stops so we went to take a look, just to say we saw it, but it was closed when we arrived.
Side note: As I was gathering the photos for this post, I wondered about the whimsical painting on the wall and the arts and crafts sign in the window, when it was supposedly the oldest house in the United States. As it turns out, this is mostly a gift shop, but you can look into two rooms decorated as a home. Apparently, the National Park Service dated the logs to sometime in the 1700s, which makes it not the oldest house. Lists of oldest houses include the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico and some colonial homes in the New England area, while this place does not make any of those lists.
We had some really good food on this trip! The plan was to get pizza, but they had calzones that looked amazing so we ordered three of those instead! I wish I had thought to take food photos because it was so good! (When I switched to cooking on road trips, I figured out how to make calzones, which are now a camping staple for us. That’s how good they were!)
Just a Few More Miles
From there, we still had one more hour left to get to our campsite. So much for arriving before dark! We might have made it if I hadn’t got lost trying to get out of Santa Fe. It didn’t matter, though, because there were plenty of open campsites at Cochiti Lake Recreation Area. Apparently, very few of us enjoy camping in the desert in summer! We took site #50 in the Elk Run campground and set up the tent by the light of the headlights.
One of the fun parts of camping and road tripping is meeting people and hearing their travel stories. We met a mom and son who were from Los Angeles and they were tent camping their way around the country for the summer. We chatted for a bit about where each of us had been and where we were going and then headed off to bed for the night.
After two long, flat days of driving, we’ll be ready to hike in the morning, so be sure to subscribe to find out where!
Looks like a very interesting trip. Capulin Volcano looks interesting, hope I get to visit one day.