Cottonwood Falls, KS

We pulled into Cottonwood Falls, KS on a Sunday afternoon in April, hoping to be greeted by a first-come-first-serve space at the local park.

We were greeted by several potential full-hook-up, grass campsites and one other big rig holding down the fort. After popping our levelers down, we headed out for a walk to check out the town of Cottonwood Falls.

It didn’t turn out to be a very long walk – the town consists of one street of junk shops full of decrepit items looking for a new home. Some people call these junk shops ‘antique shops’, but growing up in a literal antique shop, I know what they really are. They are moth-ball-infused-furniture-that-is-likely-haunted-and-has-definetely-been-puked-on-at-least-once shops. For whatever reason, people (including my parents) really love these places. I don’t.

Downtown is cute, even though it has nothing to offer other than the dead-people’s-stuff shops and a lovely courthouse. There was also a wine shop that is apparently open on weekends. We didn’t stay long enough to find out.

Cottonwood Falls is the kind of town where you don’t need to worry about locking up your bike. There were actually many unlocked bikes in bike racks in town. I liked that.

The town has installed a really elite disc-golf course over at the local park (also where we parked Dyna). I wish I liked boring games like disc-golf because this course is pretty badass. There was also a fighter jet hanging out at the park. And most afternoons provided entertainment in the form of teenage ladies playing softball on the field outside of our front windshield.

We didn’t suffer any stray balls.

We were lured to Cottonwood Falls by the promise of free-range buffalo. Well, not really free-range. But open range. Kind of. More like, large enclosed spaces. The kind that people can walk into, if they desire, legally. And visit with the buffaloes. But not touch the buffaloes. Because buffaloes are not ‘touching’ animals. They are more of “oh wow, you are freaking enormous and I am going to respect your personal space because you clearly might decide to stampede me to death” animals.

We spent an evening visiting the possible death brigade. It was awesome.

Surprisingly, Cottonwood Falls had decent running opportunities. The town has built a pathway between themselves and their neighboring town of Strong City. I enjoyed that path very much. Except when I found a baggie of unknown substance or origin laying on the ground and Jake said I couldn’t keep it. Which, in hindsight, was smart. But also, what if the bag contained diamonds?! And I just threw out a baggie of diamonds. It definitely could not have been crack.

While Cottonwood Falls itself didn’t offer us anything in the way of ‘local cuisine’ opportunities (other than the Dollar General where I accidentally bought Little Debbie cakes), Strong City is home to two restaurants. We dined at Ad Astra one evening. We weren’t blown away – but we weren’t sad about the place either. I had a ‘sweet potato burger’, which was literally a slice of sweet potato inserted into a bun. It tasted pretty much just like a slice of sweet potato inserted into a bun.

I think we pretty much conquered the offerings of the town of Cottonwood Falls, KS. And as such, we moved along after 5 days, in search of non-buffalo laden pastures.

City Park