I left the mountains of Colorado in a snow storm and traveled across the eastern Colorado plains into Kansas and Missouri. I found a few interesting sights along the way.

Pike’s Tower, Lamar, Colorado’s first WPA depression-era project, is located in Willow Creek Park and is a homage to Zebulon Pike and his men who camped near the tower’s location on November 13, 1806.
Lamar, Colorado’s Petrified Wood Building started out as a gas station, built by lumber dealer W.G. Brown in 1932. The building walls and floors are constructed of large pieces of petrified wood over 175 million years old. In 1962, the service station became Lamar Tire Service.

Monument Rocks, a group of rock outcroppings, near US-83 in western Kansas seem out of place. We are use to outcroppings like this in Utah!

The 70 feet tall sedimentary formations of Niobrara Chalk were created by the erosion of a sea bed which formed during the Cretaceous Period. 80 million years ago, this land was the sea bed beneath the Western Interior Seaway which covered much of what is now North America.

I stopped in at Boot Hill, a tourist trap in Dodge City, Kansas. It’s a re-creation of the original cowboy town with a museum and gift shop. I took advantage of the free RV parking to take a walking tour of the real town, have lunch and explore the area in the car.

Bull statue in Dodge City, Kansas.

I moved on to Fort Scott Kansas where I stayed a few nights to explore the town. There’s a National Cemetery and the Fort Scott National Historic Site there. It’s also home of Gordon Parks, a famous photographer.

Next stop was Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. I found some old historic bridges in the countryside.

For a more detailed and interesting view of this trip, check out this related video on my YouTube channel.

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