Tornado Damage, Kansas Grasslands, and Santa Fe

October 22, 2013



Saturday morning, off we went! The weather cleared overnight and got cold. We awakened to frost on the ground. Continuing to travel across Kansas, we made an afternoon stop at Greensburg. Eleven years ago on our drive east after a month in the Southwest, we stayed overnight in Greensburg. The attraction was the Big Well, the largest hand-dug well in the world. We stayed at the Best Western on the edge of town. I remember being unnerved to see the signage for the storm shelter underneath the indoor pool area. We had pizza in a restaurant on the main street and stuck out like sore thumbs. We got many stares from the few locals dining there.

Cattle joyfully grazing on Kansas Prairie

Decorative windmill at Wal Mart, maybe generating power for the lights?

In 2007 an F5 tornado struck and wiped out 95% of the small town. I remember watching the news reports and realizing that I had never been to a place that now ceased to exist. After the tornado, the town made the decision to re-build as a “green” town. We were curious to see the results six years later. The Big Well has a museum built on top of it that chronicles the history of the town and the efforts to go green. We were able to walk down into the well and tour the museum. Looking down the barely landscaped streets we were amazed when we recalled the shady tree-lined residential street the well was located on before the tornado. Not all the homes have been rebuilt, and many residents have left, but the town is making strides toward being an example of a sustainable, green community. We passed the Best Western as we left town. It must have been completely destroyed as there is a brand new motel on the site.

Big Well Museum

New Water Tower

Sculpture of Tornado made from original water tower parts

Arts Center and sculpture depicting prairie storms

Inside Museum build around the dug well

Remnants of storm siren

Kathleen in the Big Well

New energy efficient home

Grain Elevators at the edge of town

We realized that after spending time in Greensburg we would have difficulty reaching the Cimmaron National Grassland before dark, so we checked into an RV park in the small town of Meade, Kansas. We pulled under some cottonwood trees for the night.

Sorghum is a huge crop in Kansas

Hands-free driving on flat straight road

Roadside future tumbleweeds

Sunday morning we drove the rest of the distance across Kansas passing through small towns until we arrived at the Grasslands. Our first destination was the Point of Rocks scenic lookout. It's on a bluff overlooking the dry Cimarron River, and at the base of the cliff we were able to walk the Santa Fe Trail. You can still see the wagon wheel ruts! It was humbling to imagine myself walking behind a Conestoga wagon in a long cotton dress, a sunbonnet, and leather boots. The wind was fierce and dry and my lips parched. I can't even begin to imagine the sacrifices that were made by the women who followed their husbands west.

Cottonwoods in the Cimarron River valley and Santa Fe Trail ruts at bottom of cliff

Original limestone Santa Fe Trail marker

Prickly Pear Cactus with fruit

We spent some time driving the gravel roads of the Grasslands hoping to find a boondocking opportunity, but all we found were roads to oil wells, and no place to pull off for the night. The road we were following began to peter out and we turned around and drove to the campground. There were no hookups, but water was available, the cost was only $7 and we pulled into a space by a small fishing pond, again under some cottonwood trees. No one else was there. Just us, on the edge of the flowing grassland.

The Forest Service roads sometimes got a little too sketchy for comfortable driving

Campsite 4 miles from the nearest paved road

Pond adjoining camp

Workover rig at the oil well across the main (2-lane dirt) road from camp.

Cattle grates kept our camp beef-free.

It was one of the quietest nights we have had in a long time. No coyotes howling or owls hooting. The wind died down during the night and we had a rain shower before morning. We took our time getting up and decided to stay another night and enjoy the solitude. By 9 am the oil workers arrived and began working across the road, but the sound wasn't disruptive. In the afternoon we took a hike along the fish ponds, down the dirt roads, past the cattle watering trough and windmill and back to our site. The sun was bright, there was a mild breeze and we enjoyed taking our time and looking at the vegetation and the animal tracks.

Snacking carefully on Prickly Pear fruit. Very sweet and flowery.

Many tracks - coyote, fox, deer, ATV

Fierce wildlife camouflaged spider!

The state flower, sunflower

Bird hunters did not clean up after themselves

We commented on the sandy soil. This area was part of the infamous Dust Bowl of the 1930's. The government gave property to families to farm, not realizing that the thousands of years it took to build the fertile topsoil would quickly be undone by their cultivation methods. With the topsoil exposed and broken into a fine loam by intensive plowing, the almost omnipresent wind whipped up the topsoil into huge dust storms. Families were starving and forced to leave. The land was left a wasteland. These many years later, the prairie is being restored, but the fertile topsoil is gone forever.

Wind driven pump and stock pond

Our little RV on the Prairie

These frogs squawked like a rubber duckie before jumping into the pond. When six jumped and squawked together, we burst out laughing!

 We spent one more quiet night on the grasslands and Tuesday morning packed up to head west. Our plan had been to cross southern Colorado to reach southern Utah. After looking at the map and checking the weather, we decided not to risk the high mountain passes and possible snow in Colorado. We took the route southwest across the Oklahoma Panhandle and into New Mexico. We traveled from the flat grasslands to buttes and mountains in the distance. Before we reached the interstate to travel south we were treated to a glimpse of the snow covered Rockies, north of us. Yep, lots of snow. We made the right decision to swing south.

Upon reaching I-25 we drove south to go around the Santa Fe Mountains. The scenery changed as we drove through hills and trees. After reaching Santa Fe, we drove through the “chi-chi” part of the city. I love the adobe architecture and the way the houses meld with their environment. We took the turn into the mountains and climbed 8 miles up to Hyde Memorial State Park. Our New Mexico annual pass that we purchased last winter, got us a site with electricity for $4. We have no phone or internet coverage up here, but, we get several Albuquerque television stations. Go figure! So we had a heavy dose of PBS before bed.



Good chance that it will go below freezing tonight, but with electricity we can run our electric space heater and save our propane furnace. Tomorrow I would like to go to the old town, but I think it will not be smart. We had some tight streets getting through town today. I think the old town will be even harder to negotiate, and there will be no place to park the rig. We'll see. We need to head back up north tomorrow and make our way up to Moab. We want to arrive while we still have a few days of warm weather!