Travel to Kansas – Episode 967

Hear about travel to Kansas as the Amateur Traveler discusses a recent trip to Wichita, Kansas, for a conference and a post-conference Old West themed press trip.

Travel to Kansas – Episode 967

Why should you go to Kansas?

Chris says, “This is a state that surprised me. I wasn’t planning on doing an episode on this trip, but Kansas surprised me. The history and the food were all memorable. The press trip I did was about the Old West, so we visited sites about native americans, the Santa Fe Trail, railroads, cowboys, lawmen, and then later on the manufacturing of airplanes.”

Day 1 – Council Grove and Abilene

Start in Wichita. Drive two hours northeast to Council Grove, a historic stop on the Santa Fe Trail.

• Kaw Mission State Historic Site: Learn about the Kanza (Kaw) tribe for whom Kansas is named, and the short-lived Methodist mission school built after the tribe ceded land to the U.S.
• Allegawaho Memorial Heritage Park: The only remaining Kanza-owned land in Kansas, used for powwows and home to a sacred red rock recently repatriated from Lawrence.
• The Last Chance Store: Once the final supply stop for wagons heading southwest toward Santa Fe.
• Lunch: Eat at Hays House, founded in 1857 and considered the oldest restaurant west of the Mississippi.

Continue west toward Abilene.

• Don’t miss the world’s largest belt buckle and “I Like Ike” button downtown.
• Old Abilene Town: A living history area with mock gunfights (summer), a saloon serving sarsaparilla, and museum exhibits on cowboy lawmen like Wyatt Earp.
• Evening: Dinner at the historic Brookville Hotel for fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and family-style sides.

Overnight: Abilene.

Day 2 – Abilene and Ellsworth

Explore Abilene, one of the first cow towns and the boyhood home of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

• Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad: Take a 40-minute heritage ride to a restored gristmill. Seasonal trains include Christmas specials.

Head west following the trail of the cattle towns.

• Ellsworth County Historical Society & Hodgden House Museum Complex: Explore restored homes, a church, and vintage items like an iron lung and a caboose railcar.
• Lunch: Try Smokin’ Barrel BBQ for local brisket.
• Santa Fe Trail Center (Larned): A highlight for history lovers, with outdoor exhibits of a sod house and dugout home demonstrating early settler life.
• Dinner: Louie’s Bar & Grill in Ness City, and sample local mead at Sheepdog Meadery.

Overnight: Scott City.

Day 3 – Scott City & Garden City

Morning in Lake Scott State Park, one of Kansas’s most scenic sites.

• Learn about the 1878 Battle of Punished Woman’s Fork, the last U.S. Army–Native American conflict in Kansas.
• See remnants of El Cuartelejo, the northernmost Puebloan settlement in North America.

Then visit the Duff’s Buffalo Ranch for a flatbed-truck tour among a herd of American bison — one of the trip’s highlights.

Continue to Garden City:

• El Quartelejo Museum & Jerry Thomas Gallery: Combine paleontology, Plains history, and Western art.
• Finney County Historical Museum: Quirky displays include the world’s largest cow hairball and a true-crime exhibit tied to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.
• Optional: Stop at the Dalton Gang Hideout in Mead for stories from a lively local guide.

Overnight: Dodge City.

• Dinner: Central Station, housed in the old train depot where the Santa Fe Railroad once defined time zones.

Day 4 – Dodge City: Gunsmoke and the Old West

Relive TV westerns in Kansas’s most famous frontier town.

• Fort Dodge: Established to protect Santa Fe Trail commerce; now a veterans’ home with preserved 19th-century buildings.
• Boot Hill Museum: Re-creates Front Street’s saloon, general store, and gunfights, with interactive video exhibits on lawmen like Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp.
• Sample whiskey at Boot Hill Distillery (built atop the original Boot Hill Cemetery)
• Pizza and craft beer at Dodge City Brewing.

Overnight: Dodge City.

Day 5 – Return to Wichita

On your drive back east to Wichita

• Kansas Aviation Museum: Housed in the 1930s Art Deco terminal where Wichita was once the third-busiest airport in the world, this museum tells the story of local aviation giants like Cessna, Beechcraft, Learjet, and Boeing. Climb the tower for airfield views.
• Keeper of the Plains: Visit at dusk to see the Ring of Fire light up around the 44-foot Native American statue where the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers meet.

Day 6 – Wichita Wildlife

• Tanganyika Wildlife Park: Premium wildlife encounters — feed a giraffe or rhino, hold a lemur, pet kangaroos, and meet the park’s celebrity pygmy hippo, Mars.
• or Sedgwick County Zoo: Home to four baby elephants born in the same year and evening light shows.

Day 7 – Wichita

• Walk or cycle the river paths around the Keeper of the Plains and the Douglas Design District’s murals.
• Dinner: Barbecue at Bite Me BBQ or creative fare downtown.
• Dinner: Try Stearman Field Bar & Grill, a restaurant beside a small runway where planes taxi up to dine.
• Exploration Place: A hands-on science museum next door with aviation and Kansas-themed exhibits. or the art museum or botanical gardens

Overnight: Wichita (or evening flight out).

Trip Summary

• Theme: Cowboys, Indians, and Airplanes — a journey from the Santa Fe Trail to the Space Age.
• Best Time: Late spring to early fall; many Old West attractions run only in summer.
• Highlights: Feeding a rhino, standing among bison, watching the Keeper of the Plains ignite, and walking the same streets as Wyatt Earp.

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Show Notes

Kansas Frontier Road Trip: Santa Fe Trail & Wild West History

Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe National Historic Trail
Council Grove, Kansas
Kaw Mission State Historic Site
Allegawaho Memorial Heritage Park
Last Chance Store, Council Grove
Hays House Restaurant
Old Abilene Town
Historic Brookville Hotel
Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad
Ellsworth, Kansas
Svaty Ranch
The Smoking Barrel
Fort Larned National Historic Site
Santa Fe Trail Center Museum & Research Library
Ness City, Kansas
Sheepdog Brewing Co
Louie’s Bar & Grill
Historic Lake Scott State Park
El Cuartelejo
El Quartelejo Museum & Jerry Thomas Gallery
Duff’s Buffalo Ranch Tours
Cabana Mexican Grill
Finney County Historical Museum
Dalton Gang Hideout
Dodge City, Kansas
Central Station Sports Bar & Grill
Miss Kitty’s Cafe
Fort Dodge
Fred Harvey Company
Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West-One Meal at a Time
Boot Hill Museum
Gunfighters Wax Museum
Mueller-Schmidt House Home of Stone
Boot Hill Distillery
Dodge City Brewing
Red Beard Coffee
Wichita, Kansas
Kansas Aviation Museum
Classic Lear Jet Foundation
Wildlife Zoo and Park
Sedgwick County Zoo
Exploration Place
Keeper of the Plains
Equity Bank Park
Hyatt Regency Wichita
Doo-Dah Diner
Bite Me BBQ

Community

Travel to Cairo, Egypt – Amateur Traveler Episode 965

This episode brought back lots of memories of my visit to Egypt a few years ago. It is an incredible place. Three more wonderful places to visit in Cairo are:

• Al-Azhar Park – the largest park in Cairo, with beautiful landscaping, and being on a hill, has good views of the city
• Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hassan – an epic 14th-century mosque and madrasa. I’ve been to many mosques, and this is one of the most atmospheric and impressive I’ve visited
• 15th-century Sultan Al-Ashraf Qaytbay Mosque and Mausoleum in the City of the Dead – rarely visited by tourists, atmospheric mosque with great views from the minaret, including of the many pigeon towers in Cairo (to catch a local delicacy)

I’d also strongly support the advice to use Uber. At one point, I got stranded trying to cross an 8-lane highway, and used a $1 Uber to get across!

Jonty Crane

Amateur Traveler Trips