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Last weekend I took a quick solo road trip from Denver to Kansas City, with a bunch of stops checking out some state parks in western Kansas (different forum, I realize), Hays, Manhattan, Topeka, and Lawrence. KCMO being the terminus and highlight of the trip. This was my first time seeing both Kansas City, the state of Kansas (I have been to Joplin, MO before), as well as the midwest region in general. I've always been curious about what's "out east," and finally did something about it. I enjoyed the trip a lot. I took a bunch of pictures, and hope to post some when I get some more free time.
Some of the areas I walked around included the Plaza, Westport, downtown (including the Power & Lights, Kansas City Live), the "Kaw Point" river park (thought that was really cool-- we don't have rivers that big anywhere out west), as well as some places around Overland Park and Mission (totally unsure of the exact name-- I know it had "Mission" in the name and was right across from the MO border). Also, drove around all over the place, but that doesn't count.
So my impressions... first, I was blown away by how beautiful the physical landscape of MO and eastern KS is-- the hills (some of them quite steep-- steeper than anything in the Denver city limits or the CO eastern plains) covered with trees (seems like a big forest to me beginning from about Topeka eastward), often with exposed limestone. Wasn't expecting that at all. I had mistakenly thought you had to go way further east until at least the Appalachians to see forests-- not so. I've been told my whole life that Denver is basically Kansas City with mountains-- that is so NOT true. While driving from Topeka to Lawrence along old HWy 40, then from Lawrence to the KC area on Hwy 10, I was saying to myself, couldn't believe how frickin' beautiful the "country" is out here, compared to the wasteland feeling you get when you go just east of Denver. Heck, even western Kansas has a better look and feel to it, especially on the back roads I took, then the "country" east of Denver.
For some reason, I had in my mind that Overland Park was going to be like Aurora... no way. OP as well as the handful of "Mission" cities seemed like a very upscale, wealthy/semi-wealthy area to me, more comparable to Greenwood Village in the Denver area. But landscape wise, I found the Kansas-side suburbs to be hands down more visually appealing just driving around than anywhere in the Denver area. Yeah, no great mountain views in the far background, but the actual landscape right in the foreground is much more appealing looking. Also, at least among the neighborhoods I observed, the homes look a lot more visually appealing in the KC area. In comparison to the KC area, the Denver area is lacking trees, full of ugly weeds everwhere, crumbling roads and parking lots full of potholes, and ugly buildings.
However, one thing that bothers me about the Midwest in general, it is seems like it's very hard to find vast open nature parks and trails. Seems like every square inch of land is privately owned and fenced off; whereas the majority of land from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean is federally owned, either National Forest, BLM, National Parks, with endless trails to explore and get lost. If I were to move out there, that might bother me more than the lack of mountains themselves.
I thought downtown KC was a major disappointment though. Skyline wise, it's fine. But I was walking around on a Saturday afternoon and the place was pretty much dead. In my view, the Power & Lights and KC Live district kind of reminds me of the "Westgate" development in Phoenix (technically Glendale, AZ) near the AZ Cardinals/ PHX Coyotes stadiums... except it happens to be downtown. Nothing like a LoDo district with block after block full of bars and restaurants. I got bored after about an hour. On the plus side, parking was only $2 for the whole night... only in your dreams would it be that cheap in Denver.
The size of the downtown seemed tiny to me-- seemed like a very small area, just a few blocks north to south and then you hit the freeways (plenty of bridges going across of course) and then boom, downtown abruptly ends.
The Westport neighborhood seemed very cool-- reminded me a lot of Denver's Highland. Are there more neighborhoods in KCMO similar to Westport that I may have missed?
I was kind of shocked by how racially & economically segregated KCMO is. Just driving around, I got the impression that KCMO has a real, hardcore "inner city"-- you go just a few blocks northeast of the Plaza, and it seems like the neighborhood turns instantly all black. Seems like the whole gentrification movement that changed Denver (and a bunch of other cities) over the last 20 years bypassed KC entirely.
I liked the Plaza a lot. I thought the architecture was awesome. I went there both during the afternoon and at night to walk around. Tons of people out. There was even a free jazz concert going on, and the group (may have been a family?) sounded REALLY good. I thought some of the old high rise buildings around, plus the river path gave it a really unique, urban sense of place. However, when it comes down to it, the Plaza is just a fancy outdoor shopping mall-- the actual shops are mostly chains and the same stuff you can get anywhere.
Panera Bread-- we have it in Denver too, but it seems like it's every 2 blocks in KC. Is it really that good? Panera Bread out there is like what Chipotle is like here.
I liked Lawrence a lot. Downtown Lawrence reminded me a lot of Fort Collins. I thought the KU campus was awesome. If I would have known about that 8 years ago, maybe I would have considered going to school there? I found Manhattan OTOH to be extremely boring.
The drivers out there, in general, seemed very cautious, rule-abiding, and slow & sedate compared to Denver or anywhere else I've lived. Seems like everybody meticulously uses their turn signals. I'll give KC drivers a thumb up.
People here think I am crazy for visiting Kansas and Kansas City "on purpose." I'm glad I went. I may even want to go back and check it out some more.
Downtown KC does feel very small and "dead" at street level. I say that all the time and get slammed for saying it when it’s nothing more than an observation. One thing about downtown is that it's much larger than what's inside the freeway loop, the crossroads, crowncenter, rivermarket etc are all also considered downtown.
But yea, it's dead, even at 4pm on a weekday, it's just not at all like a downtown of a metro of 2 million people. I think a lot of it has to do with the freeways. People drive from a freeway off ramp to a garage in just a matter of feet almost and that's it. They stay in their office buildings till they get off and onto the streets for less than a mile to an on ramp to the burbs. You are never more than a few blocks from the freeways in downtown which really reduces auto and foot traffic down there. Also, downtown KC is turning into a residential area as companies flee to the Kansas suburbs, residents move in and buidlings are getting renovated, but as employees continue to drop, the city doesn’t have that 9-5 buzz it had at one time. But it's also a much better place after 5pm. It's a trade off. It also has to do with the fact that the plaza is basically KC’s “cultural” downtown. That’s where you will find retail, pedestrians etc.
Downtown KC can really be a vibrant place, but you have to hit it when lots of things are going on. But good lord, downtown kcmo is 1000 times better than it was just ten years ago. In 1990, Downtown KC was a few office towers amongst blocks and blocks and blocks and ruins and vacant structures and empty lots. Some of the only viable businesses outside the office building food courts were haunted houses that were nothing more than rundown buildings used one month a year. Union Station was falling down, Liberty Memorial was falling down. Downtown KC was BADDDD. In the mid 90’s and early 00’s when Denver and nearly every other city were rebuilding their downtowns, KC was building one of the largest suburban office parks in the world (sprint campus). So the city got a pretty late start on urban renewal and by the time it got going the economy crashed. They kinda of missed the boat, but even so, KCMO has really come a long way and continues to fight back.
So looking at it now, it’s pretty amazing what they have done, but they do still have some catching up left to do.
That’s doesn’t mean that there is not lots going on and lots of culture and what not. It's just not a “bustling” city. Downtown KC is just not a very busy feeling place (and I worked there for 12 years).
KC also has the worst drivers, I would call them more oblivious than cautious. But that’s for another topic.
The city really is very green and hilly and considering it pretty much has as much to offer as a city as Denver (minus the urban recreation), I always find is surprising that so few people take an interest in visiting the city. I went to Denver at least once a year while in KC, but it always seemed like pulling teeth to get people in Denver to even stop in KC while enroute to places further east.
I honestly think KC offers just about as much as Denver does. But Denver kinda leaves KC in the dust when it comes to transit, recreation, regional cooperation, regional pride etc. The suburbs and the city actually get along and I really like that about Denver. Denver also has more pro sports teams of course the mountains nearby. So I personally prefer Denver.
But the topography of KC is really nice and very much not what people expect. Everybody out here imagines KC’s topography to be like what they have seen on TV in any show set in “kansas”.
While driving from Topeka to Lawrence along old HWy 40, then from Lawrence to the KC area on Hwy 10, I was saying to myself, couldn't believe how frickin' beautiful the "country" is out here....
For some reason, I had in my mind that Overland Park was going to be like Aurora... no way. OP as well as the handful of "Mission" cities seemed like a very upscale, wealthy/semi-wealthy area to me, more comparable to Greenwood Village in the Denver area. But landscape wise, I found the Kansas-side suburbs....
However, one thing that bothers me about the Midwest in general, it is seems like it's very hard to find vast open nature parks and trails....
Panera Bread-- we have it in Denver too, but it seems like it's every 2 blocks in KC. Is it really that good? Panera Bread out there is like what Chipotle is like here....
People here think I am crazy for visiting Kansas and Kansas City "on purpose." I'm glad I went. I may even want to go back and check it out some more.
The drive on 40 highway between Topeka and Lawrence is beautiful, you have that right. You must have been intrigued by the tiny village called Big Springs and the nearby old house with the huge clock on it. It's interesting you mentioned this drive because it's one of my favorite country drives and I doubt very many people actually know about it. You've found a hidden treasure. It's smart to take the back highways rather than plow down the mostly boring interstates. Props. Another great drive with a couple of historic towns along the way, Leavenworth and Atchison, is KS Highway 7 between those two cities and KS highway 5 southeast from Leavenworth to Kansas City, KS. Just across the river from that corridor on the Missouri side, in Platte County, are many great back-back highway routes that provide the thrill of a roller coaster, as the black top actually flows with the natural earth rather than plowing through it. Those routes are a bit more difficult to define, but if you ever have any interest you can always IM me for details. The countryside around these parts seems very underrated and underappreciated.
It sounds like you were in leafy northeast Johnson County, which is comprised of several of KC's best inner suburbs, many of which were designed by famed JC Nichols, who developed the Country Club Plaza. Westwood, Fairway, Mission Woods, Mission Hills, Prairie Village and northern Leawood are the best, but Roeland Park, Mission, Merriam and northern and central (older parts of) Overland Park are nice too. These suburbs are incredibly stable and wealthy and even experiencing gentrification of sorts...incoming young professionals as well as tear downs, all despite many neighborhoods having relatively small homes. The location is amazing because the public schools are great, yet you are right next door to the urban core of KCMO. Some folks have half jokingly called the Country Club Plaza "downtown Johnson County", which technically it originally functioned as such for JC Nichols vast development area, which also includes greater Brookside and the Ward PKWY corridor on the Missouri side, basically encompassing the entire state line corridor southward from the Plaza. Now the Plaza is much more of a retail mall, as I'm sure you could tell. The entire area is well above average in regard to not only income, but also education. As for Aurora, I recently checked out the demographics of that city just out of curiousity and it seems very diverese with bits of ghetto maybe? Overland Park isn't like that. Aurora's demos look maybe more like Kansas City, KS (KCK), but with more affluence and education attached. I was surprised by the murder rate and crime in Aurora, as I assumed it was like Overland Park.
A couple of nature or raw trails and places worth checking out around here are the Burr Oak Woods Conservation Area in Blue Springs, MO, and the nearby Little Blue Trace trail. For a natural, very hilly, and rigorous biking trail, you can check out the Mill Creek trail in western Johnson County (Shawnee, Lenexa, Olathe) that goes from Olathe north through Shawnee Mission Park to the Kansas River. Further, the Topeka area has a very lengthy trail along an old rail bed going many many miles south and connecting (T-ing) into a perpendicular east-west trail that stretches many many miles. Those trails are the Landon and Flint Hills and part of the Kanza Rail Trails system.
It's interesting you noticed the Paneras, as there are only 3 in the urban core, and 4 Chipotle locations. However, Panera is out of St. Louis, I believe, so it is local to Missouri like Chipotle is to Colorado.
I'm glad you had a good time and took in appreciation some things that many or most Kansas Citians don't.
If not for the drought, the area would certainly be greener. The Kansas City area is at that midpoint between semi-arid high plain and humid river valley, leaning toward the latter. Heck, we even have a ski resort nearby in Weston, Mo.
I use the Mill Creek trail system in western Johnson County. You can essentially go from the Kansas River to Olathe.
I'm a native of Lawrence, so I can answer whatever questions you might have about it. I visited Colorado and Colorado State (nice vistas at both) while in high school before ultimately deciding staying in town, with in-state tuition at KU, was right for me.
Welcome! I, too, love Johnson County/Shawnee Mission. I agree that Overland Park is beautiful. And I love Lawrence as well (I'm a KU alum). I much prefer the Kansas side of the Kansas City area. Some people here have just the opposite opinion, but I love the Kansas suburbs here. Upscale, manicured lawns, low crime. Love it!
Interesting stuff. My thoughts on KC were similar when I first moved there. I came to appreciate downtown more after major renovations, and also realized it was about as good as KC is going to get for the time being due to cultural and economic factors. There was enough there to keep it my top destination while living in Independence.
Outdoor recreation is certainly one of KC's weak spots, although they're slowly trying to improve it with more trail miles. It's not something that has widespread interest. Some of the Missouri suburbs have lake communities which is nice and there's a large park bordering Blue Springs and Lee's Summit that surrounds a couple of lakes.
I wouldn't make generalizations about the midwest based on Missouri/Kansas. Even in the Ozarks, you're never far from a cow pasture. Go to places like Minnesota or Wisconsin, and you'll find nature/recreation trails everywhere and there's even some wilderness like the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota.
Interesting stuff. My thoughts on KC were similar when I first moved there. I came to appreciate downtown more after major renovations, and also realized it was about as good as KC is going to get for the time being due to cultural and economic factors. There was enough there to keep it my top destination while living in Independence.
Outdoor recreation is certainly one of KC's weak spots, although they're slowly trying to improve it with more trail miles. It's not something that has widespread interest. Some of the Missouri suburbs have lake communities which is nice and there's a large park bordering Blue Springs and Lee's Summit that surrounds a couple of lakes.
I wouldn't make generalizations about the midwest based on Missouri/Kansas. Even in the Ozarks, you're never far from a cow pasture. Go to places like Minnesota or Wisconsin, and you'll find nature/recreation trails everywhere and there's even some wilderness like the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota.
You make a great point regarding recreation. Most people who live in the Great Lakes region head north to lakes in the Northwoods for recreation, resorts, and other amenities of the like. This leads to a more pervasive "northern culture" hence part of the reason for the merger of the "Northern Cities Vowel Shift" accent as well IMO. This northern component is definitely not present once you go south of Iowa as most people who live in KC generally travel to reservoirs further south that have a much more defined upland South culture. People in KC would often not have a clue when I mentioned about all of the lakes in MN, WI, or MI. They just don't think about that region very much at all and it isn't on their radar screen.
Just uploaded my photos to my flickr account: Kansas trip - a set on Flickr. The link takes you to the summary page; the photos in the middle of the tour show a few different scenes in Kansas City. The rest of the pictures are primarily in Kansas.
MOKAN, if/when I'm back there, I'll check out some of those trails. Thank you for the links.
Thanks for everybody's comments. I realize the Midwest is a very diverse region. I've been to the UP of Michigan once (in the middle of December, during a snowstorm), that is certainly a beautiful (yet COLDDDddddd) area. I'm kind of curious about the Ozarks too; maybe next time I'll check out Springfield, Branson, and NW Arkansas and see some of the natural areas down there.
I'm really not sure what I'm going to do in the future, if I'm going to stay here in Denver long term, move somewhere else, move to another region, another country. I'm not happy here, but I also realize that just moving somewhere else might not change that at all. But one thing I can say now as a result of this trip that wasn't the case before... Kansas City is at least on my radar screen. Not saying I'm contemplating moving there, but it's at least a place I can think about now, having been there.
Just uploaded my photos to my flickr account: Kansas trip - a set on Flickr. The link takes you to the summary page; the photos in the middle of the tour show a few different scenes in Kansas City. The rest of the pictures are primarily in Kansas.
MOKAN, if/when I'm back there, I'll check out some of those trails. Thank you for the links.
Thanks for everybody's comments. I realize the Midwest is a very diverse region. I've been to the UP of Michigan once (in the middle of December, during a snowstorm), that is certainly a beautiful (yet COLDDDddddd) area. I'm kind of curious about the Ozarks too; maybe next time I'll check out Springfield, Branson, and NW Arkansas and see some of the natural areas down there.
I'm really not sure what I'm going to do in the future, if I'm going to stay here in Denver long term, move somewhere else, move to another region, another country. I'm not happy here, but I also realize that just moving somewhere else might not change that at all. But one thing I can say now as a result of this trip that wasn't the case before... Kansas City is at least on my radar screen. Not saying I'm contemplating moving there, but it's at least a place I can think about now, having been there.
One thing about Springfield/Branson/NW Arkansas - it many times is about 10 degrees warmer than the Kansas City area, which may be a plus or a minus to you. To me it would be a plus. That area also has a very different feel than Kansas City. My son describes it as people being "very spiritual." That is true, and it is very evident. It's not a bad thing, just something that takes some getting used to if you aren't used to driving by houses/farms with "JESUS SAVES" signs as you go down the road, stuff like that. Also much slower pace (from what I have experienced). My parents lived down there for many years and I enjoyed the slower pace when I visited, but always anxious to get back to KC. They preferred that to KC though. Different strokes.
Just uploaded my photos to my flickr account: Kansas trip - a set on Flickr. The link takes you to the summary page; the photos in the middle of the tour show a few different scenes in Kansas City. The rest of the pictures are primarily in Kansas.
MOKAN, if/when I'm back there, I'll check out some of those trails. Thank you for the links.
Thanks for everybody's comments. I realize the Midwest is a very diverse region. I've been to the UP of Michigan once (in the middle of December, during a snowstorm), that is certainly a beautiful (yet COLDDDddddd) area. I'm kind of curious about the Ozarks too; maybe next time I'll check out Springfield, Branson, and NW Arkansas and see some of the natural areas down there.
I'm really not sure what I'm going to do in the future, if I'm going to stay here in Denver long term, move somewhere else, move to another region, another country. I'm not happy here, but I also realize that just moving somewhere else might not change that at all. But one thing I can say now as a result of this trip that wasn't the case before... Kansas City is at least on my radar screen. Not saying I'm contemplating moving there, but it's at least a place I can think about now, having been there.
When the OP returns to KC again I'd like to suggest Spring when not only everything is green but in full bloom. Spring & Fall are the most beautiful times of year, IMO for this area, from the Flint Hills of KS on East, but especially Spring.
This Fall will be unremarkable as the drought has really done a number on many of our beautiful trees. It is the first time I can recall seeing mature trees along roadsides in greater KCMO and OP,KS flat out die from the heat and lack of water.
I think the OP will enjoy the Missouri & Arkansas Ozarks. Lots of great nature related activites down there related to hiking and trout fishing, kayaking, etc... .
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