Explore the State

From sweeping High Plains and rolling hill vistas to tucked away springs and caves, Kansas offers a subtly diverse range of sites of interest, both geologic and other.

Explore Northwest Kansas. Rugged canyons, towering chalk formations, reservoirs and bluffs, short-grass prairies, the highest point in the state...

Explore North-Central KansasMushroom shaped rocks, huge sandstone spheres, a towering butte named for a 16th century Spanish explorer...

Explore Northeast KansasMassive quartzite boulders deposited by glaciers, a water stop on the Oregon Trail, evidence of ancient seas...

Explore the Flint Hills. Native tallgrass prairie, rock-capped hills, marine fossils, limestone buildings and bridges...

Explore Southwest Kansas. Sinkholes, remnants of artesian wells, a high rock outcrop that signaled water to travelers on the Santa Fe Trail... 

Explore South-Central Kansas. Salt marsh and wetland stopovers for migrating waterfowl, Red Hills, sand hills, transition from lush eastern prairie to semi-arid western grasslands...

Explore Southeast KansasRolling cuestas, flat river valleys, Ozarks of Kansas, remnants of lead, zinc, and coal mining...


Another way to see the state is to explore the state's physiographic regions. Geologists have divided Kansas into 11 different regions based on common landscape features and geologic history.

Generalized map of Kansas physiographic regions