Prairie Spirit Trail State Park is a rail trail that is a Kansas State Park.
The trail is built on the former right of way of the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston Railroad from Ottawa, Kansas, to Iola, Kansas. The trail runs 50 miles from its northern terminus at Ottawa, Kansas to its southern terminus at Iola, Kansas.
The trail is open for use by hikers, joggers, and bicyclists year-round, from sunrise to sunset. This trail is paved with a hard-packed limestone screening outside of the city limits of Ottawa, Garnett, and Iola. Inside Ottawa, Garnett, and Iola, the trail is paved with asphalt. A Kansas State Park vehicle permit is not required, but a separate trail permit (daily/annual) must be purchased for those using the trail outside the city limits of Ottawa, Garnett, and Iola.
During flooding in June 2007, a section of the bridge carrying the trail over Pottawatomie Creek north of Garnett washed out. The bridge has since been replaced.
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Kansas state parks are known for their camping. But trails are often an added benefit of these public lands, and walking them opens a door of discovery to the natural world. A great example is the Ancient Trees Trail at Crosstimbers State Park near Toronto, where some of the state’s oldest trees reside. On a recent hike there, my wife and I learned much about this intriguing region. Post and blackjack oaks make up much of the forest type, and the rocky soil is full of interesting surprises. Dendrologists from the University of Arkansas studied this area in 1982, taking core samples that showed some trees to be nearly 300 years old. A self-guided tour explains, but we found many other interesting things as well. “You know, when you get under the forest cover in these parks, you see a lot of things you don’t normally see in the city parks, like all these lichens all over this rock here. “ “ A lot of interesting rock formations here on the Ancient Trees Trail, actually a place you could use as shelter if you needed to in the winter. If you got caught in a big rainstorm or something here in the summertime you could get underneath this overhanging rock, plenty of room to get back in there, kind of like a little cave. And this old spider right here, an orb web weaver – he’s got him a home right here and he’s just found him something to eat.” “ We don’t have a lot of ferns in Kansas. This is pretty neat when you can walk along a trail like this and find a plant that you rarely see in the state, but here we’ve got a couple of these ferns. Pretty neat.” “OK, so we’re off trail now. We actually came over here to an interesting plant called common prickly ash. You don’t see too much of it in Kansas. It has a real strong citrus-y smell if you find it. And look how the leaves have been eaten away. That’s what drew my attention. Giant swallowtail larvae like to feed on this stuff. Right here you can see how the leaves have been eaten away, something’s been feeding on them. And I thought we might have a giant swallowtail feeding over here and we didn’t find that. But you always find something, and that’s when we saw this gray tree frog. “The twisted grain on these old gnarly trees kind of attests to the hard life they had out here on these rocky hillsides here in this crosstimbers region of Kansas. Shallow soil, a lot of bluffs, a lot of rocks, and it would have been pretty tough to eke out an existence here for 250 or 300 years, and that’s what these old trees did here on the ancient trees trail. But they’re about gone now. It’ll be, who knows, maybe another 15 years before these logs actually fall over, and then they’ll just melt into the ground finally. One day they’ll be replaced by other trees and somebody will come along here and never even know they were there.” That’s a good reason to walk our trails now. To see it the way it is today, because things never stay the same. And in doing so, you’ll get to know a Kansas you may never have seen before. Walk our Kansas trails. You can learn where by searching the word “trails” on our department website. I’m Mike Blair for Kansas Wildlife and Parks.
Trail Route
The trail's northern terminus is located at the Old Depot Museum in Ottawa, Kansas at 38°37′13″N 95°16′12″W / 38.62028°N 95.27000°W. The Museum and terminus of the trail is located just north of the Marais Des Cygnes River in downtown Ottawa. From Ottawa, the trail heads south and detours from the right of way to cross under Interstate 35 at its intersection with US Highway 59.
Continuing to the south from Ottawa, the trail hits two small railroad towns, Princeton and Richmond. Garnett, located about midway on the 50-mile (80 km) right of way between Ottawa and Iola features a restored Santa Fe depot which is used as the city's trailhead. The depot serves as a rest stop for trail users, as well as an information center for the city.
Phase 3 of the trail spans from Welda, Kansas, to Iola, Kansas, passing the small towns of Colony and Carlyle. Colony and Iola trailheads feature both restrooms and water, while the Carlyle trailhead has only a single restroom without water. Trail mile markers for phase three include mile 99 at Colony, mile 104 at Carlyle, Kansas, and mile 109 at the Iola terminating trailhead at 37°56′10″N 95°24′32″W / 37.93611°N 95.40889°W.
Future Expansion
The trail has been developed southward from the Iola trailhead to the town of Humboldt, about nine miles, led through the efforts of Thrive Allen County, a community organization, and the Allen County local government. This extension is named the Southwind Rail-Trail, and opened to the public on June 10, 2013.[1] Future aspirations of the trail include intersecting the future Flint Hills Nature Trail, a 117-mile (188 km) trail currently[when?] under construction connecting Herington, Kansas, to the west, and Osawatomie, Kansas, to the east, in Ottawa. The eastern section from Ottawa to Osawatomie is completed. This trail is also part of the ambitious Quad-State Trail project which will connect trails together in Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa.[2] The project also includes the Katy Trail State Park in Missouri.
Management
The park is routinely patrolled by staff of the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism and other law-enforcement agencies. Only non-motorized vehicles, and motorized wheelchairs, are allowed. A daily-use per-person permit is $3.50, and may be purchased at self-pay stations located at the Ottawa, Princeton, Richmond, Garnett, Welda, Carlyle, and Iola trail heads. Annual-use per-person permits are $12.50 and may be bought at sites in Ottawa, Garnett, and Iola. No permit is required for those age 15 or younger, or for use within the cities of Ottawa, Iola and Garnett.[3][4]
References
- ^ "Ribbon Cut on Southwind Rail-Trail, June 10, 2013". Iola Register. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
- ^ "Quad-State Trail version 2". Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
- ^ "Untitled Document". Archived from the original on September 9, 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2013. City of Garnett
- ^ http://kdwpt.state.ks.us/news/State-Parks/Park-Fees/ Kansas State Parks
External links
- "Prairie Spirit Trail State Park". Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
- Friends of the Prairie Spirit Trail
- "Prairie Spirit Trail" (PDF) (Trail maps). Friends of the Prairie Spirit Rail Trail. Retrieved November 11, 2012.[permanent dead link]
- Prairie Spirit Trail at Singletracks.com
- Prairie Spirit Rail Trail at MTB Project
- Prairie Spirit Trail State Park at TrailLink.com
- Prairie Spirit Trail at TrailForks.com
This page was last edited on 3 August 2023, at 01:29