Castle Rock

     For a close-up look at Castle Rock sightseers must take one of those short trips from the Interstate, leading to a land where you never know what to expect. Castle Rock vistors may head south from Quinter over a secondary gravel road which cuts through the Kansas prairie. Take comfort in knowing the trip seems twice as long to get there than does the return. For almost 20 miles, the rural road cuts straight across a rippling landscape where only hawks and falcons keep tabs on your whereabouts. While the fields are covered with the beginnings of some future breakfast, you may see herds of pronghorn enjoying theirs now.
     Once across the cattle gate at the intersection of Gove County K and SR 82, a rough dirt track leads across a large field and climbs toward a bluff that overlooks a broad valley and Castle Rock. It's probably no place to take a passenger car, but there'll always be a few adventurous souls ready to push their luck.
     Once listed as one of the natural wonders of Kansas, Castle Rock first appears from the bluff as a small mound, encircled with a thin white ribbon. For a close-up view, a rugged path leads down through the Niobrara chalk bluff to the valley below. This immense deposition of chalk is made up of single celled animals left behind from an evaporated inland sea. It's difficult to imagine that Hackberry Creek was responsible for washing away the huge amount of material from the valley floor, leaving behind the isloated Castle Rock.

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