The Kansas Flint Hills National Scenic Byway (177)

Chase County is named after Salmon P. Chase,  United States Senator from and Governor of Ohio, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The Cottonwood River flows northeasterly and easterly carving out a river valley of sandy loamy soil enclosed by limestone bluffs and rounded sloping hills. 

This is the land of tall grass and clear streams where the buffalo by the millions once roamed.

The Kansas Flint Hills National Scenic Byway on highway K-177 stretches less than 50 miles between Cassoday and Council Grove through Chase County. That short stretch is captivating and rustic, a throw back to the days of old. It is a two lane black top that follow the old Chisholm Trail past the rail head at Bazaar and meets up with the old Santa Fe Trail in Council Groves where soldier and Indian met to try and resolve competing claims to the land.

Along the way, one passes though Matfield Green, Cottonwood Falls, Strong City, and past the Tallgrass Prairie Reserve.

On his way from Wichita to a Kansas State football game one warm October morning, the man from Oz took these images. In the early morning, there was a thick white fog hanging over the hills like milk dissolving into tea.