Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
Kansas
Tonight
🌗 46% moon
6.6 h fully dark
Hikes
Strenuous
🔴
Crowds
low
Open today
Open
Entrance
Free entry
The Preserve is Open, but K-177 Highway Closed 12 Miles North
Beginning Monday, March 2, K-177 will close for a bridge replacement near Council Grove on K-177; local traffic only. Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is OPEN, but must be accessed from the south. K-177 thru traffic will be directed to follow the state detour on U.S. 56, U.S. 56/U.S. 77 and K-150. KDOT uses state highways for official detour routes for safety, weight and maintenance concerns. Go to KDOT website for detour map.
Official NPS alert →Springhill Barn: repairs and maintenance
The historic Spring Hill Barn is closed until further notice for repairs and maintenance.
Dangerous Highway Crossing
Highway 177 is 60 mph with a blind spot directly across from the house. Safely use the highway underpass to the Fox Creek Trail just south of the visitor center parking lot. Be smart, stay alive.
Tallgrass prairie once covered 170 million acres of North America, but within a generation most of it had been transformed into farms, cities, and towns. Today less than 4% remains intact, mostly in the Kansas Flint Hills. Established on November 12, 1996, the preserve protects a nationally significant remnant of the once vast tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Here the tallgrass makes its last stand.
Activities
Topics
No entrance fee.
Hours & seasons
Hiking trails are open 24/7; no camping, no open flames, no drones. Prescribed fire and cattle/bison operations may close specific trails. Watch for signs. Trail maps available at the Visitor Center and most trailheads. Cell phone tour information is available at the kiosk and on the waysides. Visitor Center and historic buildings are open daily from 8:30 am - 4:30 pm May 1st through October 31 and 9 am to 4:30 pm November 1 - April 30. Visitor Center closed Monday and Tuesday, from November 1 to March 31.
Generally open:
winterspringsummerfallHours are reported by the park — verify before you go.
📞 6202738494
✉ tapr_interpretation@nps.govConditions
Quietest months (fewer crowds): Jan, Feb, Nov, Dec
Typical crowds: low
Weather now: ⛅ Partly cloudy, 83°F
🌫️ 93°/72°
🌦️ 88°/68°
☁️ 106°/71°
Typical monthly recreation visits · NPS avg 2023–2025 — orange months are the quietest by crowds.
Quietest months
Relative crowds by month — lighter is quieter; ringed months are the calmest by crowds.
Jan
10%
Feb
17%
Mar
46%
Apr
52%
May
100%
Jun
95%
Jul
90%
Aug
74%
Sep
84%
Oct
53%
Nov
36%
Dec
21%
Log a sky reading
Measured the sky with an SQM meter or app? Add your reading (16 = city glow … 22 = pristine). Opt in under “Travelers like you” to share it on the community leaderboard.
Things to do
Nature Trails · Depending on which nature trail, some are longer than others. The Southwind and Bottomland Nature trails generally are traversable within 45 minutes. The Fox Creek Trail, which is an extension of the Bottomland Trail, is longer and may take a couple hours. It is roughly a six-mile loop.
Take a Self-Guiding Tour of the Ranch · It may take roughly an hour to visit all the buildings.
Try Catch and Release Fishing
Explore Tallgrass Visitor Center
🔴 Take 12 to West Branch · 12 mi
🔴 Bison viewing on the Scenic Overlook Trail · 3 mi · Windmill Pasture is half a mile uphill from the visitor center. Occasionally bison will rest near the gate, deterring hikers from entering. Hikers can turn back or use an alternate trail to the scenic overlook. The round trip along the Davis Trail is 7 1/2 miles. <span style="color:#e67e22;">Plan for an additional hour</span> when going into the bison pasture. Bison have wandered onto the trail, blocking the exit. Be prepared to <span style="color:#e67e22;">wait</span> or <span style="color:#27ae60;">detour off-trail</span>.
Break on the Bottomland Trail · A quick jog, stretch during a long commute, and bathroom break can put you back on the road in a few minutes. Bird watching can take hours on a shaded bench. Hiking and fishing upstream are equally immersing.
Visitor centers
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Visitor Center
Accessibility
7 audio-described place(s)
Reported by the park — verify before you go.
Parking
Barn Handicap Parking · 2 accessible spaces
Bottomland Nature Trail Parking · 20 accessible spacesaccessible
Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse · 8 accessible spacesaccessible
Two-Section Pasture · 6 accessible spaces
Visitor Center · 49 accessible spacesaccessible
Not an official safety source — always defer to NPS.gov and rangers for life-safety decisions.
By the numbers
A visual read on Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve — its character, trails, sky, and weather.
Park fingerprint
How this park scores across the dimensions travelers care about.
Trail difficulty
Difficulty mix across this park's trails.
3-day forecast
Daily high and low temperatures (°F).
Passport stamps
Mark the stamps you've collected — they show in your memory and along your routes.
🎫 Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Visitor Center
🎫 Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Visitor Center
Places to see
Bottomland Nature Trail
audio
Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse
audio
Scenic Overlook Trail
audio
Southwind Nature Trail
audio
Spring Hill Farm and Stock Ranch Barn
audio
Spring Hill Ranch House
audio
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Visitor Center
audioAudio & media
Learn more
An important part of tallgrass prairies is stream health. Scientists track aquatic invertebrates to assess water quality.
Birds are an important part of the world we live in. We measure changes in birds and their habitat to determine the health of bird communities and park ecosystems. Knowing how birds are doing can help the park take effective steps to restore and maintain the beautiful landscapes at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.
Birds are an important part of the world we live in. We have surveyed birds for 23 years at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve to determine the health of bird communities and park ecosystems. Knowing how birds are doing can help the park take effective steps to restore and maintain the beautiful landscapes at the park.
Let your birding adventure take flight at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. This list covers all of Chase County, Kansas, where the park is located, so enjoy and prepare to be amazed at all of the birds to be found here and all of what the tallgrass prairie has to offer.
Meet the herd of Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve!
Across the US, changes in water availability are altering which plants grow where. These changes are evident at a broad scale. But not all areas experience the same climate in the same way, even within the boundaries of a single national park. A new dataset gives park managers a valuable tool for understanding why vegetation has changed and how it might change in the future under different climate-change scenarios.
In April 2023, NPS Midwest Region staff were joined by fire staff from Alaska to conduct prescribed fires in the Midwest Region. Fire activity and needs vary throughout the country, and it is a common occurrence for resources to be sent to other regions to assist where needed. Fuel reduction projects were completed in multiple Midwest Region parks, totalling nearly 4,900 acres.
Read the abstract and get the link to a published paper on how dragonfly mercury studies uncover unexpected atmospheric delivery pathways: Janssen, S.E., C.J. Kotalik, J.J. Willacker, M.T. Tate, C. Flanagan Pritz, S.J. Nelson, D.P. Krabbenhoft, D. Walters, and C. Eagles-Smith. 2024. Geographic Drivers of Mercury Entry into Aquatic Foods Webs Revealed by Mercury Stable Isotopes in Dragonfly Larvae. Environmental Science & Technology. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.4c02436
Ranger School
Park-grounded courses you can learn with the Ranger.
Bison Adaptations
Open →
Bison Life Cycle
Open →
Bison and the Food Web
Open →
Bison or Buffalo? Which is the Correct Name
Open →
Butterflies, Hummingbirds, and Bees Oh My! Pollinators on the Tallgrass Prairie
Open →
Flowering Plant Reproduction in the Tallgrass Prairie
Open →
How Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve connects
This park's activities, topics, location, and on-the-ground places — one hop in the graph. Drag to explore; click an activity, topic, or related park to follow it.
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