Spring Break: Kansas!

Spring Break finally arrived the third week of March, and what better destination than Kansas? Okay, so we obviously weren't planning to spend the week on hot sandy beaches, and Kansas actually did have exactly what Eric and I were looking for:  free housing, geocaching, and wide open spaces!

3/22 - We left early and begun grabbing geocaches starting in Deer Trail. Had lunch in Limon, home to an aviation themed cache that Eric nabbed a very cool pilots map from. Next stop was Vona, a creepy little town, but I really wouldn't mind spending some more time there, namely for photo ops.

Vona, CO

On to the Oasis rest stop in Colby Kansas, and shortly after we had a very special stop on the road: Mingo, the world's oldest active geocache! It was placed 5/11/2000, and I had no idea we lived so close to such an important cache until I was loading the GPS the night before we left! Arrived at our destination near Hays just after dark.

Mingo!  The worlds oldest active geocache

3/23 - The first day was going to be South, and the second North. The car saw LOTS of oil lease dirt roads and many oil pumps the whole trip. The first memorable stop was a 'junkyard' of old rusty cars and metal parts.

Oil and dirt roads

No geocache here, just great photo ops

Another favorite was an open field with a few small family gravestones. It was just a really peaceful area. Later on, between two caches we found a skunk romping through a field! I'd only ever seen roadkill skunks before. Of course when we passed it again it almost became roadkill.

Over the lone gravestone

Skunk!

I was expecting to see a lot of abandoned houses, but sadly for my camera and sense adventure, most were guarded by non-abandoned houses right beside them. What I wasn't expecting to see was the occasional empty residence constructed of limestone! We did find one without a fence or guardian and got to look around it for a few minutes.

Limestone house exterior

Looking in the window - nope didn't go inside this one

Exhausted by this time, we sought refreshments at the Sonic in Hays then headed to a crumbling church on the way back. It was built in 1900, and what a place to explore! I used these photos as an excuse to learn a bit more about photoshop, I tried for a bit of a grungy look and feel.

Remains of the church

Explored every inch of this place

3/24 - First cache of the day was a view with a bunker! This area proves Kansas isn't entirely flat, and also that a 'terrain 5' cache to Kansans is really more of a 'terrain 3' to Coloradans. The two theories on the bunker: "One is a ham radio operator used this man made bunker type of cave built into the side of the hill. The other story is the Germans built this during WWII to spy on the Walker Air Force Base to see when the bombers were taking off."

Apparently that field turns green in the summer

Taking in the view

The bunker

Next we were off to find fossils. It was a little out of the way, but one area had landowner permission for geocachers to dig for fossils and sharks teeth. We didn't spend a lot of time there but still found a lot. Nearby was also the first oil well in Russell county, it really was more interesting than it sounds!

Lots of shell fossils everywhere, got some sharks teeth at the dig site

Oil and Tumbleweeds, this is Kansas!

The next set of caches were a little too far North, so the backup plan was Wilson Lake. Who knew Kansas had lakes too? The geology of this area was amazing, and of course there were plenty more limstone fenceposts to enjoy.

Neat rocks!  Now spot the geocache...

See the ammo can by the tree?  They called this a terrain 4/5.  Must be a Kansas thing

Never got tired of all the amazing limestone fenceposts

The early settlers used limestone as fence posts because there were few trees around. Since I was driving all of this day, we stopped at every single abandoned house by the road. They make fantastic photography subjects.

Clouds, rock posts, falling houses, oh my!

Back at home base the storms were rolling in. Consulting Eric's stormchasing expertise, this could have been the beginnings of an outflow dominant storm, but sadly rained itself out instead.

Storm?! ...almost

3/25 - Drove back to Denver. The trip overall was a blast. We were in a beautiful area, and it had everything we were looking for but without the spring break crowds. Though it was very tempting to stay one more day, but besides having things to do back home, there also was the lack of more caches in a new area and absence of running water in the house.

Total geocaches this trip: 43!