8 Best Attractions To Visit In Kansas
From museums to history to natural beauty, the Sunflower State surprises at every turn. At the Boot Hill Museum in Dodge City, visitors can experience life as it was over 150 years ago, while families will delight in the Safari Zoological Park in Caney, home to exotic animals ranging from lions and lemurs to sloths. Hutchinson offers unique museums, such as the Strataca salt mine museum and the Cosmosphere, which is renowned for space education. Read on to discover these Kansas attractions and more. Each of these is interesting and memorable in its own way, and any of them is a great place to start.
Boot Hill Museum - Dodge City
Dodge City, Kansas, is worth a visit on its own. This well-preserved town on the prairie offers a glimpse of life in this part of the country over 150 years ago. There are many excellent attractions in this town of around 27,000 residents, but one of the very best is the Boot Hill Museum.
This museum is on the site of the famous Boot Hill Cemetery and seeks to preserve the history of the Old West. It is open year-round. Guests can explore old buildings and view thousands of artifacts from the glory days of this time period; the museum has over 20,000 items in its collection, including over 200 original guns. The museum is interactive and immersive, and it's fun for all ages. Visitors can learn a lot at the Boot Hill Museum and enjoy live shows like simulated gunfights.
Safari Zoological Park - Caney
Near the Oklahoma border in southeastern Kansas, visitors will find the small town of Caney and the Safari Zoological Park. This refuge and family-run zoo was founded in 1989 to be a home for endangered species. Today, over 150 animals live on the property, including sloths, lemurs, wolves, lions, and more.
The park offers guided tours during spring, summer, and autumn, giving visitors the opportunity to learn the animals' names and more about them. The animals are well cared for, and Safari Zoological Park is one of the best-rated attractions of its kind nationwide. This zoological park is a bit off the beaten path, but anyone who makes the effort to visit it finds it well worth it. It's a wonderful place to visit for anyone who loves animals and who would like to learn more about them.
Museum of World Treasures - Wichita
The Museum of World Treasures in Wichita is well-named, as it houses a vast collection of treasures from around the world. It first opened in 2001 and has grown each year since. Today, it's home to items from the collections of over 300 collectors of interesting artifacts and includes sections on fossils, ancient human history, geology, military history, music, presidents and other world leaders, and general American history.
The museum is inside the Farm and Art Market in Old Town Wichita and spans three floors. This museum is unique in that its huge collection is incredibly diverse, and because the items within the museum belong to different individuals, the collection is always changing. There's something for everyone in the Museum of World Treasures, and visiting it is a wonderful way to spend a day in Wichita.
Botanica, The Wichita Gardens - Wichita
Anyone who loves plants, flowers, and the beauty of the great outdoors will love Botanica, The Wichita Gardens in Wichita. This 17-acre botanical garden is owned by the city and is operated by a non-profit called Botanica, Inc. It first opened in 1987 as a project of the Wichita Area Garden Council and the City of Wichita to offer residents and visitors a place to learn about and enjoy a plant-filled environment.
Botanica is open year-round, but it's most alive during spring and summer. At any time of the year, visitors can explore rock gardens, rose gardens, woodlands, greenhouses, the aquatic plant collection, and the spectacular Downing Children's Garden. The gardens offer tours and programs for all ages that suit and delight a wide variety of interests and tastes. This is one of the most beautiful and well-cared-for planned natural spaces in the Sunflower State, and it's a great place to spend time in the outdoors in Kansas.
Strataca - Hutchinson
Have you ever been in a salt mine? Chances are, the answer to that question is no. If you're interested in checking out a salt mine in the United States, there's no better one to explore than Strataca in Hutchinson, Kansas. This museum was built in one of the world's largest salt deposits. Visitors take an elevator 650 feet below the surface of the earth to learn more about salt and salt mining, and will be amazed at what they see.
This salt mine is one of 14 in the United States, but its the only one that is open to the public. On guided tours, visitors will learn about geology, mining methods, mining vehicles, and mining history. Upgraded experiences include a special salt safari on a tram through the darkness or a lantern tour. Anyone who visits Strataca will leave this attraction with a much greater understanding and appreciation for salt, and will have enjoyed an experience that few others have had.
Cosmosphere - Hutchinson
Botanica and Strataca are wonderful places to visit for those who love our terrestrial Earth, but anyone interested in what exists outside our planet's atmosphere will love Cosmosphere in Hutchinson. This museum is one of the best in the entire nation for science and space education; it houses over 13,000 spaceflight artifacts from both the United States' and Russian space missions.
The museum is broken into five different sections: the Hall of Space Museum, the Justice Planetarium, the Carey Digital Dome Theater, Dr. Goddard's Lab, and CosmoKids. Each of these areas offers different educational resources and opportunities for people of all ages to learn more about space travel. Cosmosphere started as a planetarium at the Kansas State Fairgrounds in the 1960s and grew into the 105,000-square-foot museum that it is today. Anyone who visits this museum will leave with a greater interest and understanding of the history of human spaceflight.
Dwight D Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum - Abilene
The medium-sized city of Abilene is in the north-central part of Kansas and it's known for its museums, the Dyes Air Force Base, its historic downtown, and for being home to the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature, the latter of which is celebrated by statues of storybook characters all over town. Beyond all of the above, Abilene is well known as the childhood home of our nation's 34th president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and is also home to his presidential library and final resting place.
The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum is one of the most-visited and most interesting attractions for American history enthusiasts in Kansas. The complex includes Eisenhower's boyhood home, a chapel, a statue of the former president, his presidential library, a museum, a visitor center, and the graves of Eisenhower, his wife, Mamie, and his son, Doud, who died from scarlet fever at age three. All of these spaces are open to the public. Plan at least two to three hours to explore this vast space; visitors will leave with a greater appreciation for all that President Eisenhower accomplished before, during, and after his time as President of the United States.
Castle Rock Badlands - Quinter
Kansas is not entirely cornfields and farmland. In fact, there are a few natural elements there that might surprise you. One of them is the Castle Rock Badlands near Quinter. This free attraction is a bit off the beaten path, but it's worth the drive to see these unusual rock formations in central Kansas, about a half hour south of I-70 on dirt roads.
Anyone who makes the trek to this site will be amazed by the 70-foot-tall Castle Rock rock formation and the adjacent badlands, ripe for exploration. These structures are the result of chalk deposits on the ocean floor when the area that is now Kansas was once covered by an inland sea. Over time, these formations were carved by wind and water. Castle Rock Badlands is on private property, but the owners allow visitors; if you visit, please clean up after yourself. When you do check them out, you'll understand why this unique spot has been named one of the "Eight Wonders of Kansas."
Anyone planning a trip to Kansas will surely find plenty of interesting adventures to fill their time there. These eight attractions are a great place to start, but there is also much more to see and do in Kansas. It's far more than cornfields; Kansas is the true center and heart of the United States. Plan a trip today - once you explore Kansas, you'll be very glad that you did.
