Why this ride
Open landscape, low urban exposure and a clear sense of place. It also links naturally to Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Flint Hills Scenic Byway
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 35 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 31 min
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Access context
Check seasonal gates, park access and state 511 notices before publication. Specific flag: wind.
Seasonal context
Apr-Oct
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Cottonwood Falls
The courthouse in Cottonwood Falls looks as if somebody dropped a piece of France onto the prairie. It is a small limestone building in the Second Empire style, topped with a mansard roof and a clock tower, finished in the 1870s and still used by Chase County, which makes it one of the oldest working courthouses in Kansas. Around it are a handful of limestone streets with fewer than a thousand people living on them, and the whole place feels like a village that was built to last and then politely not expanded.
Read the complete Cottonwood Falls write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cottonwood Falls sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Council Grove.
2. Council Grove
Wagon trains did their last serious shopping in Council Grove. In the nineteenth century, this was the final reliable stop on the Santa Fe Trail, the place where traders headed for New Mexico cut timber for spare axles, stocked up and waited for enough company to travel safely onward. A treaty with the Osage was signed here in 1825 under a great oak, and the Kaw, or Kansa people, were later settled nearby, so the place has a long record as a meeting point, which is what the name means.
Read the complete Council Grove write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Council Grove comes up 35 km in.