KANSAS

State parks make up only 0.06% of Kansas land; less than 2% of Jayhawk land total is public. No wonder many of the best hiking trails in Kansas are long distance point-to-point affairs, the Flint Hills Nature Trail and Elk River chief among them. The Cimmarron National Grassland is the largest swath of public land in the Sunflower State. It also contains the longest publicly owned stretch of the historic Santa Fe Trail and there is much exploring open to your dog here. Castle Rock and the Little Jerusalem Badlands are very un-Kansaslike doggie destinations, although the Badlands hike traces the rim of the eroded chalk cliffs and doesn’t dip into the formations. The Southwind Nature Trail in the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is a very Kansaslike experience for your dog, harkening back to the open prairie days before 96% of that ecosystem was destroyed. The shale and limestone of the Flint Hills repelled the plows leaving 70 species of grasses flourishing here. Wyandotte County Lake is the best circumnavigation of water in Kansas and offers smaller loops for less ambitious canine hikers. When you can find a trail in Kansas it is generally paw-friendly but a dispiriting number of “No Dogs” sign appear at local nature trails.

The Best Day Hike You Can Take With Your Dog In Kansas

Southwind Nature Trail
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve • Strong City

Once upon a time 170 million acres of tallgrass prairie covered North America. Today, 96% of that ecosystem is gone. Most of what remains is in the Flint Hills of southeastern Kansas where the limestone and shale deposits repelled even John Deere’s best steel plows. The Southwind Nature Trailis Seaman’s best chance to experience the Great Plains like his ancestors following the Conestoga wagons when pioneers described this landscape as “an ocean of grass.”

The Preserve was once Spring Hill Ranch where Texan Stephen Jones began running cattle in the 1870s. This is an exceedingly pleasant outing for your dog, trotting on dirt ranchroads and finely crushed stonepaths.

There are 70 species of grasses flourishing here, dominated by Big Bluestem. A single blade might have a root system descending over eight feet underground - deep enough so the plant will emerge in the spring even without rainfall. Given more ideal growing conditions these tallgrasses can reach eight feet into the sky creating wide chutes of hiking lanes for your dog. The grasses are high enough to provide shade on a hot summer day.

The 1.75-mile canine hike loops past stone fences and along the bottomlands of Fox Creek. A spur across the stream leads up a small hill to a stone school donated by Jones. It will all leave Seaman nostalgic for the loss of America’s most endangered ecosystem.

HIKING TIME: 1-2 hours

(from the book 300 Day Hikes To Take With Your Dog Before He Tires You Out: Trails where you won’t be able to wipe the wag off your dog’s tail)