I have had the wonderful fortune of camping in a variety of places in the world, from Kruger National Park in South Africa, to the jungles of the Amazon rain forest, to the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado.  If pressed with the question of where my favorite camping spot is, I could not answer that easily.  The Colorado Rockies win the prize for the most scenic, Kruger Park the most exciting, and the Amazon the most challenging.   But I have to say that one of my favorite spots to set up a tent is at Cheyenne Bottoms right in the middle of the state of Kansas.

KANSAS…you ask…?    There is a simple beauty there.  It is a place where huge cottonwood trees tower overhead, quickly giving way to prairie.  In May, migratory song birds fill the trees in an explosion of music and color.  Migrating water birds come through too, stopping off at the Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivera wetlands.  This has proven to be a most restful and peaceful place to be.

May is a time when anything goes in “tornado alley”.   Mother nature can dish out anything and out in the middle of nowhere, you’d better be ready to take it.  Last year high winds nearly blew us away.  This year, we were graced with perfectly comfortable temperatures accompanied with a mix of clouds and sunshine.  One dawn following a brief rain, thick fog blanketed the landscape.   When the sun began to rise, everything receded back in soft layers.  It was a sight to behold…

As the sun rose higher in the sky, the fog gradually began to burn off.  The world went from orange into subtle color…

Finally the true colors of daylight arrived as the fog slowly disappeared…  This is the subtle beauty of Kansas…