After attacking my delicious red pepper & spinach quiche like a hungry polar bear just waking up from long winter hibernation in the trendy Bluestem Bistro in Aggieville, located near Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, I dragged my still-unsatisfied stomach alone and slowly drove toward the Konza Prairie few miles outside of the city. With a cup of iced Galão, charming scenery sunbathed in gorgeous March sunlight, and Bob Dylan’s album Highway 61 Revisited in the stereo, I was at least as happy as jazz alto saxophonist Charlie Parker when he advertized for the King Saxophone Company with the catch phrase of “I’m as happy as a Bird with my King Super 20.” But, birds get sad; birds get lonely. I imagined.

But something is happening here
And you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones ?

Dylan continued to sing his Ballad of A Thin Man and I continued to converse with my own imaginary Mister Jones while trying to picture a sad little blue bird in my head without any major success. By and by, I was standing near the entrance of the Konza Prairie, excitedly jotting down the no-horses rule from the information board (no horse in the trail, check!) before my wonderful exploration of McDreamy tallgrass land.

The Konza Prairie Biological Station, located south of Manhattan, Kansas and operated by the Nature Conservancy and Kansas State University, is a large native tallgrass prairie preserve in the Kansas Flint Hills. While the primary objective of Konza Prairie, one of sites within the Long Term Ecological Research Network, functions as a field research station, three hiking trail loops are opened to public, including the Nature Trail Loop (2.8 miles), Kings Creek Loop (4.7 miles), and Godwin Hill Loop (6.1 miles).