By Out in Western Kansas …
This is the road to Monument Rocks in Gove County. I hate to say that Monument Rocks is out in the middle of nowhere, but it kinda is. It’s west of US 83 about six or seven miles as I remember. You take dirt/sand roads to get there. The town of Gove looks to be about 15 miles away, as the crow flies. With only about 3,000 people, Gove County is sparsely populated.
There are a few small signs along the highway that point to Monument Rocks, but other than that, you’re on your own. This place has no restrooms, no park ranger, no brochures. It’s just you and the chalk pyramids which were carved by the Smoky Hill River. They are 70 feet high and 80 million years old.
See that figure in the orange to the right? That’s Dave.
I stepped away from the formations to take a long shot. This is rattlesnake country, but luckily, I stepped on zero snakes.
It’s almost like the Arches National Park in Utah. Almost.
They’re chalk pyramids and they seem awfully crumbly. “What keeps them from dissolving?” I asked Susie Aber, Emporia geologist. It’s the lack of precipitation, she said. It never, OK, seldom rains out here.
The gatekeepers. As we left Monument Rocks, cattle stood just beyond the cattle guard in the road – that line they won’t/can’t cross. Every cow had its big eyes on us. We had to talk our way out of this one, sweetly and slowly; it’s their road, after all. Finally, they yielded.
Awesome pictures Cheryl!!!!!!!!
Was there much evidence of graffiti on the monuments? Was it old, nineteenth century?
No graffiti, no trash. Just a nice, clean, isolated land treasure.
So isolated that no one nominated it as a Wonder of Kansas.
M.T. Liggett’s Scrap Art, Ford County
Mahaffie Farmstead State Historic Site, Olathe
Marais de Cygnes Massacre, LaCygne
Marci Penner, McPherson County
Marijana Grisnik, Kansas City
Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum, Chanute
Mary Queen of Peace Catholic Church, Ulysses
Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, McPherson County
Meade County Museum, Meade
Mennonite Heritage Museum/Wheat Liberty Bell, Goessel
Mighty Samson of the Cimarron Bridge, Seward County
Military Memorial Garden, Oakley
Mine Creek Battlefield State Historic Site, Linn County
Missouri River, Doniphan-Atchison-Leavenworth-Wyandotte Counties
Moon Marble Company, Bonner Springs
Mount Oread, Kansas University
Mount Sunflower, Wallace County
Mural of Shaking Hands representing Diversity, Ulysses
Museum of World Treasures, Wichita
Mushroom Rock State Park, Ellsworth County
I take the above statement back! I can do that can’t I?
Monument Rocks and Castle Rock as a nomination is one of the 24 finalists for which you can cast a vote.
The list above are the list of “M” nominations that didn’t make the cut.
I’ve never seen these! I can’t believe I’m this old and I’ve never seen this amazing wonder of Kansas!
well, I’m dragging my sister Janie to see this when she comes this summer….
Thanks for the GREAT photos, Cheryl!
Neato photos, Cheryl.
I liked the “Kissing Trees” or “Gateway to the Chalk Castles.”
Also the last one, “The Guardian Cattle (at the cattle guard).”
Your and Dave’s photos allow me to “travel” around Kansas in a way I never could while living there.
With pictures and maps and I can go wherever I want to whenever I want to…and stay as long as I like.
Glad to have you along for the ride, H-43… and everybody else. 🙂
Now I feel very guilty for never having seen these while living so close. I’m putting them on my must see list for the next time I go out west. I also want to see the Indian adobe dwellings.