The delights of the Flint Hills landscape are pastoral in the extreme, with few roaring waterfalls or towering cliffs to take your breath away or make you pull out the camera, but the unique ecosystem has enough admirers that a section of it was recently set aside as the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Located along Hwy-177 about 17 miles south of Council Grove, or two miles north of Strong City and US-50, the 11,000-acre preserve protects the largest remaining portion of the extensive tallgrass prairie which once covered over 400,000 square miles of the Great Plains—most of the present-day Midwest. Interpretive facilities are housed in an old stone barn, on a hill above the highway, which has a visitors center (daily; 620/273-8494) with exhibits and videos on the natural flora, fauna, and geography of the area. A 1.5 mile nature trail starts here, winding along to the historic one-room Fox Creek Schoolhouse while giving an up-close look at the head-high (or taller) flowering grasses that give the tallgrass prairie its name. Park rangers also guide bus tours of the grassland ecosystem.
The best base for a visit to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is Cottonwood Falls, two miles south of Strong City and US-50 via Hwy-177. The town boasts the beautiful Chase County Courthouse, the oldest still in use in the state, standing like a French château at the south end of a sleepy Main Street business district, where you’ll also find a couple of cafés and crafts shops, and the elegant 10-room Grand Central Hotel ($140 and up; 620/273-6763), at 215 Broadway, which has a fine, subtly Western-themed restaurant. For a night out in the country, consider the 1874 Stonehouse on Mulberry Hill (620/273-8481; $95), located on 60 rolling acres just outside town, on the banks of the Cottonwood River.
