Overlanding

Kansas

Almost none of Kansas is public land, so the county road grid is the network

The Congressional Research Service counts 254,412 acres of federal land in Kansas, 0.5 percent of the state’s 52,510,720 acres. One unit holds most of what a traveller can use. The Cimarron National Grassland covers 108,175 acres in the far southwest corner, and the Forest Service calls it the state’s largest area of public land and the only parcel it manages here. The Bureau of Land Management holds nine acres in the whole state. The Park Service holds 465.

What Kansas has instead is road. The Federal Highway Administration counts 138,975 miles of public road here, the fifth most of any state, and 109,434 of those miles are rural county road, a figure no state but Texas beats. That grid is the network, and almost all of it runs between ground that belongs to somebody. The state falls from 4,039 feet on Mount Sunflower in Wallace County to 679 feet on the Verdigris River in the southeast, and the Kansas Geological Survey points out that Mount Sunflower itself stands on private land whose owners allow visitors.

Weather sets the calendar rather than snow or a gate. NOAA puts annual precipitation above 45 inches in the southeast and below 20 inches in the west, and the statewide average at 33.0 degrees in winter and 76.8 in summer, so the season runs long at both ends. Severe thunderstorms are the thing to plan around: between 1991 and 2010 Kansas averaged just under 100 tornadoes a year. Federal camping is a short list. All 49 federal campgrounds a vehicle can reach are Army Corps of Engineers sites at 14 reservoirs, and every one of them takes a reservation.

Kansas by the numbers

Of Kansas is federal land 1: 0.5%; 254,412 of 52,510,720 acres, as of September 30, 2024
Acres in the Cimarron National Grassland 2: 108,175; The Forest Service calls it the largest area of public land in Kansas and the only parcel it manages here. The CRS counts 108,621 Forest Service acres in the state
Of BLM land in the whole state 1: 9 acres; The Park Service holds 465 acres and the Fish and Wildlife Service 29,590
Mount Sunflower, the highest point in Kansas 19: 4,039 ft; Wallace County. The lowest point is 679 feet on the Verdigris River in Montgomery County
Miles of rural county road 21: 109,434; More than any state except Texas. Kansas has 138,975 miles of public road in all, the fifth most of any state
Federal campgrounds a vehicle can reach 17: 49; All of them Army Corps of Engineers sites, at 14 reservoirs, and all of them reservable
Acres in Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve 9: Nearly 11,000; The Park Service says less than 4 percent of the tallgrass prairie is still intact, mostly in the Kansas Flint Hills
Tornadoes a year, 1991 to 2010 37: Just under 100; Kansas has had six F5 or EF5 tornadoes since 1950, the third most of any state

Who owns Kansas, and where a vehicle can legally stop

The Congressional Research Service splits the state’s 254,412 federal acres five ways: the Department of Defense holds 115,727, the Forest Service 108,621, the Fish and Wildlife Service 29,590, the National Park Service 465 and the Bureau of Land Management nine. There is no national forest in Kansas. The Forest Service ground here is grassland, and nine acres of BLM land in a state of 52.5 million is a rounding error.

The Forest Service acres are a single unit. The Cimarron National Grassland covers 108,175 acres across Morton and Stevens counties, in the corner that touches Colorado and Oklahoma, and its elevation runs from 3,150 to 3,540 feet. It carries 23 miles of the Santa Fe National Historic Trail, which the Forest Service says is the largest stretch of that trail on public land, marked with limestone posts and still showing ruts. Point of Rocks, the bluff above the Cimarron River that told wagon trains water was near, is what the Forest Service calls the third highest point in Kansas. The grassland office is on Highway 56 in Elkhart.

Refuges are the next block and all of them are day use. Quivira protects 22,135 acres of inland salt marsh and sand prairie, was established in 1955 and is listed as a Wetland of Global Importance. Kirwin covers 10,778 acres around a Bureau of Reclamation reservoir and dates to 1954. Marais des Cygnes holds 7,500 acres of bottomland hardwood forest in the far east, about 2,500 of which are closed to visitors. Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge sits at the upstream end of John Redmond Reservoir.

Then the reservoirs, which are where federal camping actually happens. All 49 federal campgrounds in Kansas that a vehicle can reach belong to the Army Corps of Engineers, at 14 lakes: Council Grove, Milford, Melvern, Clinton, Pomona, Marion, Perry, Big Hill, John Redmond, Wilson, Elk City, Fall River, Kanopolis and Tuttle Creek. The Corps Lakes Gateway lists 17 Kansas projects in all. The Park Service runs five park units here, Brown v. Board of Education, Fort Larned, Fort Scott, Nicodemus and Tallgrass Prairie, and five national historic trails cross the state. Everything else you see from the road is a farm or a ranch.

Source 1

The county grid is the road network

The Federal Highway Administration’s 2023 road length table gives Kansas 138,975 miles of public road. Only 9,488 rural miles belong to the state highway agency. Counties hold 109,434 rural miles and another 1,867 urban ones, which is more county road than any state except Texas. Federal agencies hold 669 rural miles, and that number is the whole story of public land here in one line.

The agencies that describe Kansas back roads keep giving the same warning about them. The Kansas Geological Survey says the Gyp Hills Scenic Drive is largely unpaved and can be precarious in bad weather, that the roads to Castle Rock are unpaved and may be impassable when wet, and that the Arikaree Breaks are reached on unpaved county roads that may not be passable in wet weather. Rain, not snow, is what shuts a road in Kansas.

Open range is the other thing to know. On the Gyp Hills Scenic Drive the survey warns that the land along the route is privately owned and that cattle can wander onto the road in open-range areas. On the unpaved drive from Matfield Green to Madison it warns of cattle guards and low-water bridges. Treat a cattle guard as a gate someone relies on and a low-water crossing as a reason to get out and look at the far bank before you commit.

Source 21

Seasons, storms and what they do to a trip

NOAA describes Kansas as the transition between the humid east and the semiarid west. On the 1991 to 2020 normals, annual precipitation runs above 45 inches in the southeast and below 20 inches in the west. The statewide average temperature is 33.0 degrees in winter and 76.8 in summer. Nothing gates shut for the season the way a mountain pass does, so the calendar is about storms and mud rather than snow.

The weather that decides a Kansas trip is convective. NOAA says severe thunderstorms are common here because cold, dry air from the north meets warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, and that those storms bring large hail, high winds and tornadoes. Between 1991 and 2010 the state averaged just under 100 tornadoes a year. Six F5 or EF5 tornadoes have touched down since 1950, the third most of any state, the last of them at Greensburg on May 4, 2007.

The long record says how wide the swing is. Total annual precipitation across the state has run from 15.3 inches in 1956 to 40.6 inches in 1951, and NOAA names drought and heat waves as a particular risk to the agriculture that owns most of the ground you will be driving past. A dry year and a wet year are different states to travel: the same county road that holds up all August turns to grease in a wet May.

Source 37

The federal map, and how little of it there is

The Park Service holds five places in Kansas and none of them is a road trip: Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka, Fort Larned, Fort Scott, Nicodemus, which the agency calls the oldest remaining Black settlement west of the Mississippi, and the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Five national historic trails cross the state on top of them, the California, Lewis and Clark, Oregon, Pony Express and Santa Fe, which are routes rather than holdings and mostly follow today’s highways.

Tallgrass Prairie is the one with ground to walk. It has nearly 11,000 acres in the Flint Hills, and the Park Service gives the reason it exists in one line: tallgrass prairie once covered 170 million acres of North America and less than four percent of it remains intact, mostly right here.

That is the whole federal estate in Kansas apart from the Cimarron National Grassland and the refuges. It means the trip you plan here is built from county roads, state parks, Corps of Engineers water and other people’s land, not from a national forest map.

Source 11

Corps water carries the camping

The Corps of Engineers lists seventeen projects in Kansas: Big Hill, Clinton, Council Grove, El Dorado, Elk City, Fall River, Hillsdale, John Redmond, Kanopolis, Marion, Melvern, Milford, Perry, Pomona, Toronto, Tuttle Creek and Wilson. In a state with one national forest unit and no BLM at all, those reservoirs are where the public shoreline is.

Our build of the federal recreation database finds 49 campgrounds across fourteen of them, led by Council Grove with seven, Milford with five, and Melvern, Clinton, Pomona, Marion and Perry with four each. Every one of the 49 can be booked ahead and none is first come only, which is the opposite of how camping works on the grassland at the other end of the state.

Plan a Kansas trip around that asymmetry. The west is public land you can drive and dispersed ground you can sleep on; the east is booked sites beside water, and on a summer weekend they go.

Source 18

Passes and routes

Cimarron National Grassland Auto Tour

3,540 ft 30 miles

Elkhart, the Cimarron River and Point of Rocks

The Forest Service self-guided tour, set out in its Sea of Grass brochure, is about 30 miles and takes two to three hours. It says the roads are good when dry but asks for caution if there has been rain. The stops include a prairie dog town, the Santa Fe Trail, Point of Rocks and the Cimarron River. The grassland campground, 12 first come first served sites at $7 a night, is open year round seven miles north of Elkhart on US 27 and four miles in on Forest System Road 700. 4

Vehicle
Any vehicle when the roads are dry
Cimarron River Trail #1842

The Race Track staging area to Forest Service Road 700.1S

The Forest Service calls this an off-highway vehicle trail in the Cimarron riverbed, and says the riverbed is very sandy with cross fences in several places along the trail. It runs between the Race Track on the west, an area the grassland has set aside for off-road and OHV travel north of the river, and Forest Service Road 700.1S on the east. Parking is at the Race Track. This is the only sand driving in Kansas that a federal agency documents. 6

Vehicle
Off-highway vehicles, on the routes shown on the Motor Vehicle Use Map
Turkey Trail and the Race Track

10.5 miles

Cottonwood Picnic Area to a mile east of County Road 16

The grassland’s other motorised ground. Turkey Trail runs 10.5 miles between the Cottonwood Picnic Area and a point a mile east of County Road 16, and only the part the Motor Vehicle Use Map shows as open carries vehicles. The Race Track, north of the Cimarron River, is the area the Forest Service has set aside for off-road and OHV travel and is marked on the same map. The Conestoga Trailhead nearby reaches the Santa Fe Companion Trail, 19 miles, and the historic trail itself, 23 miles. 3

Vehicle
Only the part shown as open on the grassland’s Motor Vehicle Use Map
The Santa Fe Trail, Cimarron Route

23 miles of it on the grassland

Between 1821 and 1880 the Santa Fe Trail was a commercial highway between Missouri and Santa Fe, and the traders chose between two lines. The Mountain Route had more dependable water but an arduous crossing of Raton Pass; the Cimarron Route was shorter and faster but demanded knowing where the scarce water was. The Cimarron National Grassland carries 23 miles of it, the largest section on public land, with limestone posts marking the original route and well-preserved ruts visible in places. 12
Point of Rocks

3,540 ft

The bluff is west off Kansas Highway 27 about ten miles north of Elkhart, inside the grassland. The Geological Survey explains why it mattered: on the Santa Fe Trail’s Dry Route it signalled springs at the end of a stretch that could run a week without water, which made it one of the most anticipated landmarks on the crossing. Wagon ruts are still visible in places around it. 32
Pillsbury Crossing

A 60-foot-wide limestone ford about seven miles southeast of Manhattan in Riley County, where Deep Creek runs only a few inches deep across the rock and you drive through it to reach the waterfall and the 59-acre wildlife area on the far side. The Department of Wildlife and Parks manages it. It is the only place in this guide where the crossing itself is the attraction, and the depth is the thing to look at before committing. 33

Vehicle
Any vehicle, through a few inches of water
Cheyenne Bottoms

A 64-square-mile basin that was intermittent marshland before the area was settled. The Department of Wildlife and Parks manages 20,000 acres of it, about 12,000 of them reliable wetland, and the Nature Conservancy manages a further 7,000 at the north end which are also open to the public. The roads across it are level dirt between pools, and after rain they behave like every other unpaved road in central Kansas. 31
Flint Hills refuge auto tour

The Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1966, occupies the broad Neosho River valley upstream of the John Redmond Reservoir, and the Fish and Wildlife Service says it is reached by numerous roads crossing the refuge, including an auto tour route on the south side of the Neosho. It is a daylight drive on refuge time, not a camping destination. 16
Kirwin refuge shoreline

Kirwin was created in 1954 as an overlay on a Bureau of Reclamation irrigation and flood control reservoir, which is why the ground reads as a lake with a refuge draped over it. Its 10,778 acres take in prairie grassland, open water, shoreline, wetland and the wooded banks of the lake and its feeder streams, in country where trees only grow along water. 14
K-177 to the Tallgrass PrairiePaved

The preserve sits in northern Chase County, two miles north of where US 50 meets the Flint Hills National Scenic Byway, K-177, west of Strong City, and the visitor centre is off K-177. The Park Service describes the road itself as a hazard worth naming: a 60 mph highway with no shoulder, sloped drainage, blind hills and infrequent driveways. Slow early for the turn rather than late. 10
Gypsum Hills Scenic BywayPaved

42 miles

Medicine Lodge to US 183 north of Coldwater

The Kansas Geological Survey describes it as a 42-mile stretch of US Highway 160 from Medicine Lodge in Barber County to the junction with US 183 just north of Coldwater in Comanche County, crossing into the High Plains as it nears that junction. The country it runs through is the Red Hills, also called the Gypsum or Gyp Hills because gypsum layers cap the mesas and buttes. The survey says the byway gives easy access to sweeping Red Hills and High Plains views. 24

Vehicle
Any vehicle
Gyp Hills Scenic Drive

22 miles

A loop from US 160 three miles west of Medicine Lodge

A 22-mile loop through the heart of the Red Hills in Barber County. The Kansas Geological Survey says it starts three miles west of Medicine Lodge at the junction of Highway 160 and Gyp Hills Road, runs south on Gyp Hills Road, turns west on Scenic Drive and heads back north on Lake City Road. It calls the experience closer and slower than the byway, and warns that much of the route is unpaved and can be precarious in bad weather, that the land alongside is privately owned, and that cattle can wander onto the road in open-range areas. 24

Vehicle
Dry weather only on much of it
Flint Hills National Scenic BywayPaved

48 miles

Cassoday to Council Grove on K-177

One of the two National Scenic Byways in Kansas. The Kansas Geological Survey puts it at 48 miles along Kansas Highway 177 from Cassoday in northeastern Butler County to Council Grove in Morris County, past Cottonwood Falls and Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. The Park Service warns that K-177 at the preserve is a 60 mph highway with no shoulder, sloped drainage, blind hills and infrequent driveways, and discourages parking or walking along it. 25

Vehicle
Any vehicle
Matfield Green to Madison

Matfield Green in southern Chase County to Madison in northeastern Greenwood County

The Kansas Geological Survey lists this as the other scenic drive in the Flint Hills, the road south from Matfield Green to Madison. It is mainly on unpaved roads and crosses several cattle guards and low-water bridges, so the survey asks for caution in wet weather. It is the plainer version of the byway, through working pasture rather than past interpretive stops. 25

Vehicle
Dry weather. Low-water crossings
Big Basin Prairie Preserve vehicle trail

US 160 and US 283, 15 miles northwest of Ashland

Big Basin is a circular depression about a mile across and 100 feet deep, bisected by US Highway 283 and 160. The 1,818-acre preserve around it, run by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, holds Little Basin and the eastern two thirds of Big Basin, mixed-grass prairie and a bison herd. The Kansas Geological Survey says the entrance is east off US 160 and 283, about 15 miles northwest of Ashland and 15 miles south of Minneola, that the vehicle trail is minimally maintained and should be driven with caution, and that it runs along the southern and eastern edge of Big Basin to Little Basin with two overlooks and parking. 28

Vehicle
Minimally maintained. Drive with caution
Arikaree Breaks county roads

North of Saint Francis, across northern Cheyenne County

A strip of ravines and canyons two to three miles wide cutting diagonally across northern Cheyenne County and on into Colorado and Nebraska, carved out of loess up to 100 feet thick. The Kansas Geological Survey says the Arikaree Breaks are reached on unpaved county roads that may not be passable in wet weather. There is no visitor centre and no signed route: this is county road navigation in the corner of the state where three states meet. 26

Vehicle
Dry weather only
Castle Rock and the chalk badlands

2,430 ft

South of I-70 in Gove County, east of Oakley

Chalk spires and hoodoos of the Smoky Hill Chalk that served as a landmark for travellers on the Smoky Hill Trail. The Kansas Geological Survey says the landowner allows access to Castle Rock and the badlands but that visitors are on private property, and that the roads in are unpaved and may be impassable in wet weather. It also records that a hoodoo called Cobra Rock collapsed in 1998 and the top of Castle Rock’s tallest spire came down after a thunderstorm in 2001, which is a fair guide to how much weight the formations will take. 27

Vehicle
Dry weather only
Glacial Hills Scenic BywayPaved

Leavenworth north to the Nebraska line by Atchison and White Cloud

The Kansas Geological Survey calls K-7 the dry-land route through the loess hills of the glaciated northeast corner, with views of the Missouri River valley that Lewis and Clark passed through in 1804. Going south to north it says the Missouri views come at Leavenworth, at Atchison and around White Cloud, just south of where the highway ends at the Nebraska border. This is the greenest, most broken country in the state and the least like the rest of it. 29

Vehicle
Any vehicle
Post rock back roads

Bunker Hill at I-70 exit 193 to Wilson Lake Dam

The Kansas Geological Survey says outcrops of Greenhorn Limestone and the red sandstones of the Dakota Formation show along the scenic back roads between Bunker Hill, at I-70 exit 193, and Wilson Lake Dam in Russell and Lincoln counties. Post rock country runs about 200 miles diagonally from near the Nebraska border in Washington County to just north of Dodge City, and ranges from under 10 miles to nearly 60 miles wide. The limestone fence posts settlers quarried here, which the survey says could weigh up to 400 pounds each, are still standing in the fields. 30

Vehicle
Any vehicle when dry
Wetlands and Wildlife National Scenic BywayPaved

Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, by Great Bend and Larned

The second of the two National Scenic Byways in Kansas. The Federal Highway Administration describes a route through wetlands, prairie and rural communities where sandhill and whooping cranes, pelicans, eagles, shorebirds, ducks and geese stop over. It links Cheyenne Bottoms, which the Kansas Geological Survey describes as a 64-square-mile basin holding 20,000 state-managed acres of which about 12,000 are reliable wetland, with Quivira National Wildlife Refuge and its auto tour road around Big Salt Marsh. No agency this research could open publishes a length for the byway, so none is given here. 22

Vehicle
Any vehicle

Rules worth knowing

Assume the ground is private, because it is: With 0.5 percent of Kansas in federal hands, the default is private property. Kansas law makes criminal trespass a class B nonperson misdemeanour, and it applies where a person knows they are not authorised and the land is posted in any manner reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders, or is locked or fenced or otherwise enclosed, or where the owner has told them to leave. A fence line and a gate are the whole permission system in most of the state. Ask, and take the answer. 36
On the grassland, the map decides, not the track: The Forest Service asks visitors to pick up the free Motor Vehicle Use Map for the Cimarron National Grassland before they go, because it is the document that identifies which roads, trails and areas are designated for motor vehicle use. Its instruction is short: stay on designated roads and trails, drive cautiously and respect private land. The Race Track north of the Cimarron River is the area set aside for off-road and OHV travel, and it is marked on that map. 7
State parks need a vehicle permit: Kansas law requires a valid park and recreation motor vehicle permit to use a motor vehicle in any state park, or any portion of one, or in any other posted area the secretary designates. The secretary issues both annual and daily permits, and the price of each is set by regulation rather than by statute. Buy one before you drive in. The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks website would not answer this research session, so no price is quoted here. 34
An ATV may not use a state or federal highway: Kansas makes it unlawful to operate an all-terrain vehicle on any interstate, federal or state highway, or inside the corporate limits of any city unless that city allows it. An ATV may cross a federal or state highway. Between sunset and sunrise it may not be on any public highway, street or road unless it carries the lights the law requires of motorcycles. Farm use and county noxious weed work are the narrow exceptions. Plan to trailer, not to link trails on the highway. 35
Fire restrictions follow the county as well as the agency: The Forest Service posts restrictions and closures for the Cimarron National Grassland on its alerts page, and states plainly that even when no restriction is in place on the grassland, any restriction in force for an individual county must be followed. For the Cimarron that means Morton County, which the Forest Service links from its own fire restrictions page. Check both before you plan a meal around a fire, and carry a stove that does not care what the answer is. 8
Wind is a threat to the camp before it is a threat to the drive: The Weather Service puts numbers on it: sustained winds of 40 to 50 mph can cause isolated damage, widespread damage comes with higher speeds, and straight-line winds inside strong thunderstorms can exceed 100 mph. High winds blow objects around, which on a Kansas trip means an awning, a roof tent and anything on a rack long before it means a vehicle leaving the road. Watch the western sky through the afternoon and pick where the vehicle will sit before a storm builds, not while it is arriving. 38
The only federal campground in the state takes no bookings: Cimarron Campground on the grassland has twelve sites at seven dollars a night, is open year round, and the Forest Service states it is strictly first come, first served. That makes it the exact opposite of the Corps of Engineers water in eastern Kansas, where all 49 campgrounds in our build can be reserved ahead and none is first come only. Arriving late on a holiday weekend is a different gamble at each end of the state. 5
Part of one refuge is closed to visitors outright: Marais des Cygnes is 7,500 acres of bottomland hardwood forest the Fish and Wildlife Service calls unique in Kansas, and about 2,500 acres of it are closed to visitation. On refuge ground the rule is the reverse of the rest of this guide: assume a place is closed unless the refuge says it is open, and read the unit’s own map before driving in. 15
Refuges close at night: The national wildlife refuges are the largest pieces of open federal ground in central and northern Kansas, and none of them is a place to sleep. Quivira states its hours as an hour and a half before sunrise to an hour and a half after sunset. Refuge roads, including the auto tour around Big Salt Marsh, are for daylight. Plan the night at a Corps of Engineers lake, a state park or the Cimarron campground instead. 13

How high is Kansas?

From Manhattan at 1,023 feet to Mount Sunflower at 4,039. Altitude decides what your engine, your brakes and your lungs have to work with, and how late in the year the passes open.

Towns

Goodland On I-70 at US 24 in Sherman County, close to the Colorado line and the last services of any size on the interstate. 3,684 ft
Elkhart Last town before the Cimarron National Grassland. The grassland office is on Highway 56 here, and Highway 27 runs north past Point of Rocks. 3,588 ft
Sharon Springs On US 40 in Wallace County, the nearest town to Mount Sunflower and the state high point. 3,474 ft
Saint Francis On US 36 in Cheyenne County, the base for the Arikaree Breaks on the county road grid to the north. 3,316 ft
Oakley At I-70 and US 83 in the chalk country. Monument Rocks, Castle Rock and Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park are all reached from here on county roads. 3,067 ft
Garden City On US 50 and US 83 in the western Arkansas valley, with services in every direction. 2,840 ft
Liberal A service town in the far southwest corner, on the way between Dodge City and the Oklahoma panhandle. 2,835 ft
Dodge City Where US 50, US 56 and US 283 meet on the Arkansas River. The usual resupply before the southwest corner. 2,492 ft
Hays On I-70 at US 183, and the way into post rock country on the back roads east of town. 2,024 ft
Larned Beside Fort Larned National Historic Site, which the Park Service calls a well-preserved fort on the Santa Fe Trail. 2,003 ft
Great Bend On US 56 and US 281 at the bend of the Arkansas River. Cheyenne Bottoms lies northeast in Barton County. 1,851 ft
Medicine Lodge East end of the Gypsum Hills Scenic Byway on US 160 and the start of the Gyp Hills Scenic Drive three miles west. 1,498 ft
Wichita On I-35 and US 54 in south-central Kansas, the main workshop and parts base for the southern half of the state. 1,303 ft
Council Grove North end of the Flint Hills Scenic Byway on K-177, and an important Santa Fe Trail crossing of the Neosho River. Council Grove Lake carries seven Corps of Engineers campgrounds. 1,234 ft
Cottonwood Falls On K-177 in Chase County beside Strong City, from which Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is two miles north. 1,206 ft
Manhattan Where K-177 meets US 24 below Tuttle Creek Lake. Pillsbury Crossing and its limestone ford are about seven miles southeast. 1,023 ft

Passes, high roads and summits

Mount Sunflower The highest point in Kansas, on private land the owners open to visitors. No road to the top 4,039 ft
Point of Rocks Point of Rocks 3,540 ft
Point of Rocks Cimarron National Grassland Auto Tour: Elkhart, the Cimarron River and Point of Rocks 3,540 ft
Monument Rocks Our own reading of the elevation surface at its map point in the Gove County chalk. The USGS names service files it as the Chalk Pyramids 2,660 ft
Castle Rock Castle Rock and the chalk badlands: South of I-70 in Gove County, east of Oakley 2,430 ft

Pass, road and summit elevations are the figures published by the agency that manages them. Town elevations are the town’s or county’s own figure where it publishes an exact one; the rest are from the U.S. Geological Survey (3D Elevation Program at the place’s official coordinates), retrieved September 18, 2026. Every source is listed at the foot of the page.

Sources for this page

Congressional Research Service. Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data (R42346), Tables 1 and 2, data as of September 30, 2024. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
USDA Forest Service, Pike-San Isabel National Forests and Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands. About the Area. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
USDA Forest Service, Pike-San Isabel National Forests and Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands. Cimarron National Grassland recreation region. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
USDA Forest Service, Cimarron National Grassland. Cimarron National Grassland Auto Tour, and the Cimarron Campground page it sits beside. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
USDA Forest Service, Cimarron National Grassland. Cimarron Campground. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
USDA Forest Service, Cimarron National Grassland. Cimarron River Trail #1842. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
USDA Forest Service, Pike-San Isabel National Forests and Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands. Off-Highway Vehicles (OHV). Retrieved September 19, 2026.
USDA Forest Service, Pike-San Isabel National Forests and Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands. Fire Restrictions. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
National Park Service. Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
National Park Service, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Directions and Transportation. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
National Park Service. Kansas: parks and trails. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
National Park Service, Santa Fe National Historic Trail. History and Culture. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge: About Us. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Recreation.gov. Recreation Information Database (RIDB) full export. Federal campgrounds a vehicle can reach, grouped by managing agency and unit. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center. Corps Lakes Gateway: Kansas. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
U.S. Geological Survey. Elevations and Distances in the United States, online edition. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
U.S. Geological Survey. Geographic Names Information System and 3D Elevation Program point query. Elevation of the 3DEP surface at the GNIS coordinates of the named place, rounded to the nearest foot. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Federal Highway Administration. Highway Statistics 2023, Table HM-10: Public Road Length, Miles by Ownership (November 19, 2024). Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Federal Highway Administration. America's Byways: Kansas. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas. GeoKansas: Mount Sunflower. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas. GeoKansas: Red Hills Scenic Drives. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas. GeoKansas: Scenic Drives in the Flint Hills. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas. GeoKansas: Arikaree Breaks. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas. GeoKansas: Castle Rock. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas. GeoKansas: Big Basin and Little Basin. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas. GeoKansas: Glacial Hills Scenic Byway. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas. GeoKansas: Post Rock Country. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas. GeoKansas: Cheyenne Bottoms. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas. GeoKansas: Point of Rocks. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas. GeoKansas: Pillsbury Crossing Wildlife Area. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. K.S.A. 32-901: Park and recreation motor vehicle permits; certain license plates constitute permits; fees; posting of information. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. K.S.A. 8-15,100: Operation of all-terrain vehicles; where; when; exceptions. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. K.S.A. 21-5808: Criminal trespass. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. State Climate Summaries 2022: Kansas. Retrieved September 19, 2026.
National Weather Service. Wind Safety. Retrieved September 19, 2026.

Reviewed September 19, 2026. Conditions, closures and rules change; check with the managing agency before you travel.

Who manages Kansas

The agency on the sign decides where you can drive and where you can sleep. Choose one to see how much of the state it holds and what that means for a trip.

Kansas
0.5% 254,412 acres

Source: Congressional Research Service, Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data (R42346), Table 2, data as of September 30, 2024. Federal land here means the five agencies shown; state, tribal and private land make up the rest of each bar.

The public land map of Kansas

Agency boundaries, the BLM and Forest Service roads and trails open to vehicles, wilderness, and BLM campgrounds. Select any point for who manages it.

Map layers

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Layers

Federal land Who manages the ground, by agency

State and local land State forests, parks and wildlife areas, county and city land, nationwide

BLM roads and trails Routes managed for public motorized use

Forest roads and trails Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map

Wilderness BLM Wilderness and study areas, closed to vehicles

Camping and trailheads BLM campgrounds, OHV areas and trailheads

Base map

Map Topo Satellite

Legend

Federal land, by managing agency

Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
US Forest Service (USFS)
National Park Service (NPS)
US Fish and Wildlife (USFW)
Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
Department Of Defense (DOD)
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Other Federal
State
Local
Alaska Native Lands (Patented or Interim Conveyed)
Alaska Native Allotment

State and local land (USGS PAD-US)

State land
County and city land
Regional agency or district
Land trust or conservancy

Gaps with no tint inside public land are private parcels, often old mining claims and homesteads. They are not open to the public.

Dashed clay lines on the base map are unpaved tracks from OpenStreetMap. They show what exists on the ground, not what is legal to drive.

Select any point to see who manages the land.

Boundaries are approximate and land status changes. This map is a planning aid, not a survey or a statement of access. Confirm routes, closures and camping rules with the managing office.

Open the full map