Ellis - Oakley - Colby - Hoxie

Estimated Drive Time: 2 Hours

This one’s for the history buffs. Peruse railroad memorabilia in Ellis, then hit the road to admire fossils of marine life and prairie art.
 

Greet the day at the Ellis Railroad Museum. A replica depot provides a glimpse of early 1900s rail travel, complete with a telegraph machine, carts used to load luggage and mail, and other tools of the trade. Don’t miss the 5,000-square- foot model train display.

Leave by midmorning to make the hour-long jaunt to Buffalo Bill’s Bar and Grill in Oakley for lunch. The wood- paneled pub serves deep-fried snacks, an assortment of burgers and sandwiches, and a comfort-food buffet onSundays. It’s a 1⁄2-mile stroll from Buffalo Bill’s to the free Fick Fossil and History Museum, which houses large marine reptile fossils and minerals in addition to railroad memorabilia and fossil folk art.
 

Fick Fossil Museum (Blaine Moats)
 

Point the compass northwest and drive 21 miles to Colby. The town’s Prairie Museum of Art and History tells the story of the High Plains region through colorful works. Outside, the museum’s campus features the state’s largest barn, a one-room schoolhouse and a homestead from the 1930s.

After a full day of history hopping, it’s time for a well- deserved happy hour or dinner at The Elephant Bistro and Bar in Hoxie, 35 miles east of Colby. The cocktail menu includes a classic Old-Fashioned alongside inventive sips like an Italian Margarita (with a spritz of Campari to elevate it). Wrap up the day with a couple final tidbits of cool local history: The bistro occupies one of the oldest buildings in town, and the bar top is made from the wood lanes of Hoxie’s old bowling alley.

Dodge City - Greensburg - Kinsley - Larned

Estimated Drive Time: 2 hours, 15 mins

This tour of the once wild and rowdy region transports travelers from old Dodge City to cutting-edge exhibits in Greensburg and beyond.
 

Start your day in Dodge City with a hearty breakfast at Miss Kitty’s Cafe, a Gunsmoke-inspired eatery with peanut butter pancakes and Wyatt’s Waffle Combo—four triangles served with your choice of egg and meat. Before you get out of Dodge, take a self-guided tour through the interactive Boot Hill Museum, where visitors can order sarsaparilla at an Old West saloon and see an extensive collection of items owned by the city’s earliest residents. Live shoot-outs take place during the summer months.
 

Boot Hill Museum (Doug Stremel)
 

Encounter more recent history 45 miles southeast in Greensburg. At 5.4.7 Arts Center, a sleek building showcases rotating exhibits. Across the street, dig into the town’s story at the Big Well Museum. Learn about Greensburg’s renaissance after a devastating EF5 tornado in 2007, then descend a spiral staircase to the bottom of the world’s largest hand-dug well.

Half an hour north in Kinsley, you’ve reached the midway point between San Francisco and New York. (Congratulations!) You’ll also find the Edwards County Historical Museum and Sod House, home to a late 19th-century church and a replica sod house built in the 1960s.

Another 30-minute drive takes you through late 1800s life at Fort Larned National Historic Site. Newer exhibits delve into the diversity of people who passed through the fort, such as a Plains Indian woman who shares of her tribe’s forced departure. Recap the day’s tales over pulled pork nachos at Edward’s Street Brew and Bites in Larned.
 

Fort Larned (Jason Donnelly)

Marysville - Waterville - Clay Center - Concordia - Courtland

Estimated Drive Time: 2 hours, 20 mins

Journey back in time via Pony Express and train, stroll past modern mural masterpieces and end your day in a town reinventing itself for future generations.
Total drive time.
 

The art of delivering mail by horse didn’t last long, but the Pony Express Barn and Museum in Marysville preserves the stories of speedy gallopers and their fearless riders. Tour the 1859 stone barn, then walk to nearby hologram-style murals at Pony Express Plaza that move with you.

It takes about 20 minutes by car—longer by horse—to reach Central Branch Railroad, where volunteers take riders on a two-hour round-trip jaunt from Waterville to a bridge 65 feet above the Big Blue River Learn about this storied stretch of rail that carried homeless children during the Orphan Train era and German prisoners of war during World War II.

Keep chugging 40 miles southwest to Clay Center for a refueling stop at 15-24 Brew House. The subtle “buzz” in their Backwoods Brown Ale comes from Kansas honey. A recent art renaissance has led to 30 murals popping up around Clay County. One of the newest works, Prairie Thunder, wraps around a large grain bin and depicts stampeding bison.

Make a pit stop in Concordia (44 miles northwest) to see the Whole Wall Mural, a 3D tapestry of local history. At 140 feet wide, it’s the longest sculpted brick mural in the country. Forge ahead 25 miles northwest to Courtland, where many of its 300 residents are working to revitalize the town. Shanna Lindberg created Soul Sister Ceramics—a boutique and paint-your-own-pottery studio—in a former filling station. Get your fill of vintage goods at Anteaques and craft brews at Irrigation Ales.

Sould Sister Ceramics (Kansas Tourism)

Belle Plaine - Mulvane - Derby - Rose Hill - Winfield

Estimated Drive Time: 1hour, 45 mins

Treat yourself to a day of wandering through nature, feasting on Italian fare, sipping local libations and making friends with dinosaurs.
 

Discover a trove of trees and tranquility 25 miles south of Wichita at Bartlett Arboretum in Belle Plaine. Tiptoe through more than 50,000 tulips in spring and tap your toes during concerts from April into November. Singer-songwriter Robin Macy, a founder of The Chicks (née the Dixie Chicks), is the arboretum’s caretaker.
 

Bartlett Arboretum (Aaron Patton)
 

A taste of Italy awaits less than 10 miles away in Mulvane, where Luciano’s restaurant is open for lunch and dinner Thursdays through Sundays. Weekday lunch means pasta, salads and panini. On Friday and Saturday evenings, indulge in the five-course chef’s menu. Trade primavera for prehistoric at Field Station: Dinosaurs, a 15-minute drive north in Derby. This Jurassic Park for juniors features more than 40 life-size animatronic dinos that move and roar, plus miniature golf.

Do some pickin’ and grinnin’ at Meadowlark Farm Orchard and Cidery, about 20 minutes east in Rose Hill. Harvest whatever is in season— strawberries, peaches, apples, pumpkins—and when you’re done picking, stay for picnicking. Buy hard cider too.

Fascination with fermentation inspired Ladybird Brewing, a women-owned microbrewery about 30 minutes south in Winfield. Beer-lovers and spouses Kaydee and Laura Riggs-Johnson turned a former gas station into a spot to fill up on high-octane brews. Dogs are welcome, as are kids.

Across the street, Shindigs Bar and Grill has its own cool digs—a reimagined 1910 Santa Fe train depot. Wet your whistle with a cocktail, then play cowcatcher and order a steak or The Rail Burger (and some sweet potato fries).

Lenexa - Overland Park - Louisburg - Paola

Estimated Drive Time: 1hour

On this easy drive through the Kansas City metro and beyond, playtime comes in the form of board games, a garden party, giant cat encounters and fruity sips.

Breakfast includes board games at Cardboard Corner Cafe inside Lenexa Public Market. Try waffles in their traditional form, or branch out with a Wafflewich or Waffle Pop—a Popsicle-esque waffle topped with bits of cereal and other sweets. Capitalize on your sugar rush by hiking 6 miles of trails at 300-acre Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. Paved and wood-chip paths trace bluffs and streams, leading to sculptures, open prairie, Monet-inspired gardens and a kid-favorite train garden.

Drive 15 miles south to reach Miss B’s Cafe, a Louisburg icon for its fried chicken dinners, all-day breakfasts and addictive pecan rolls. (Even if you’re stuffed from morning eats, it’s still worth a stop for a to-go slice of fruit-filled pie.) Just east of town, handsome lion Tonka and his feline friends roam Cedar Cove Conservation and Education Center, a preserve for abandoned or neglected big cats. Guided tours teach about critical threats the exotic creatures face and how to help the cause. 

Once a roadside stand, Louisburg Cider Mill has burst into an 80-acre wonderland for fresh apple cider, doughnuts and its Lost Trail Root Beer. Crowds pack the place in fall for Ciderfest and the U-pick orchard, but it’s open year-round. Just south near Paola, savor fruits of the vine at Somerset Ridge Vineyard and Winery, set among limestone hills ideal for growing a dozen varieties of grapes. In the tasting room or on a vineyard stroll, sip dry Ruby Red, semisweet Oktoberfest and other favorites. Weekends bring food trucks and live music to the winery.
 

Somerset Ridge Vineyard (Ryan Donnell)

Fort Scott - Frontenac - Scammon - McCune - Parsons

Estimated Drive Time: 1 hour, 40 mins

Journey through stories of bravery, then curb your appetite with time-tested recipes passed through generations.

Report for duty in Fort Scott to watch artillery demonstrations and soldiers drilling on horseback during one of the living-history events at Fort Scott National Historic Site. Exhibits in many of the historic structures salute the lives of the soldiers, laundresses, surgeons and others who strove to create a home on the frontier military post. Established to protect settlers migrating west in the 1840s, the fort was directly involved in the Bleeding Kansas era and the Civil War. Just a block away, hear stirring accounts of ordinary people who had a profound impact on history at the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes.
 

Fort Scott Natl. Historic Site (Michael Snell)
 

Travel 30 minutes south to Frontenac for lunch at Pallucca and Sons Italian Meat Market and Deli. The 1909 institution is known for its sandwiches featuring sliced meats on freshly baked bread. Make it a picnic on the grounds of Heart of the Heartlands Railroad Museum and Carona Depot in Scammon (20 miles southwest of Frontenac). Railway track signals, a steam locomotive, train cars and two restored depots surround a building filled with memorabilia.

It’s a 15-minute jaunt to McCune, where you’ll go nuts stocking up on locally grown pecans, pies, fudge, cinnamon rolls and jam at Circle’s Pecans and Country Store. The popular roadside stop has been family-owned for 30 years. Cruise straight west to Parsons and unwind at Kitchen Pass Restaurant and Bar. A secret-recipe house rub flavors the fire-grilled steaks, making steak sauce “prohibited” here.