Backpacker – August 2019

JULY/AUGUST 2019

BACKPACKER.COM 17

Wildfl owers bloom trailside

in July and August.

When pioneers passed through

a 20 0 -acre plot of chalk

formations in the western Kansas

prairie, they dubbed it “Little

Jerusalem” for the holy land they

imagined it resembled. State

offi cials, who recently partnered

with The Nature Conservancy

to protect the area and its

85-million-year-old canyons and

100-foot rock towers, say it’s

more like the Badlands. You can

see what you think this summer:

Af ter years with no public access ,

Little Jerusalem Badlands State

Park (namers tried to please

everyone) opens this summer

(no date has been set). Hike

there to see ferruginous hawk s ,

cliff swallows, and pronghorns,

as well as the largest acreage

of G reat Plains wild buck wheat ,

endemic to western Kansas.

For a sampler, tr y the 1. 2- mile

Rim Trail, which traces a ridge

overlooking the bluff s.

Contact bit.do/little-jerusalem-

badlands-sp

LITTLE

JERUSALEM

BADLANDS

STATE PARK, KS

3

FIRST TRACKS

TEXT BY MORGAN MCFALL-JOHNSEN (FIRST TRACKS)