Did you know that there’s a Rock City in the middle of Kansas? Do you care that there’s a Rock City in the middle of Kansas? Well, you should because it’s kinda cool.
Last June, the kids and I set out our on next adventure to Rock City, which is near Minneapolis. Minneapolis, Kansas-not Minnesota. It’s very close to the I-35 and I-70 meet-up in the middle of Kansas. It’s approximately 20 minutes northwest of Salina, Kansas, which is approximately an hour and a half from Wichita. So, in all, it was about a 1 hour 45 minute drive.
First, a keeping it real moment here. We almost didn’t make it to Rock City. The kids were arguing the first 45 minutes of the trip. Nobody wanted to sit next to each other. They kept picking on each other. I had to pull over and separate them into different rows (that’s a good thing about a 3-row car) with open seats between them. I also told them if I had to pull over again, we would turn around and go back home. Didn’t want to go back home, but I also didn’t want fighting all day. Fortunately, they did start getting along, and the rest of our day was FUN.
We made a pit stop in Salina before Rock City to get coffee. Remember, I always need coffee. Always. And I always try to find a coffee shop that I haven’t gone to before if I’m passing through a city. So, in Salina, we stopped at Moka’s. There are apparently two of them in Salina, but I chose the one closest to the highway so we wouldn’t go too far out of our way. The ambiance inside was nice and inviting. As it was summer, I got an iced drink. I tried one of the “favorites” which was a Kahlua mudslide (a concoction of Kahlua, Irish cream, and chocolate blended into an icy coffee drink and topped with whipped cream). Despite the name, there was NO alcohol in the drink (although I do think alcohol would be a great addition but perhaps not before driving to Rock City). It was a good drink. We didn’t get any food, although they did have a large selection of hot sandwiches, wraps, and soups/salads.
After the coffee and sugar fix, we headed on to Rock City. It was an easy drive and easy to find. Rock City is described as a geological wonder. There are huge sandstone concretions that look like tall, round cannon balls.
It was a little smaller than I expected (about the size of two football fields) but it was fun. It has about 200 sandstone concretions. Although there aren’t 200 big ones. The kids enjoyed climbing up and down the rocks, although Wyatt frequently climbed up a little higher than I would like (as he always does) and then needed help getting back down.
They charge a nominal entrance fee ($3) and have bathrooms (nicer porta potties). With the entrance fee, they gave us a map of the rocks and a popsicle for each kid. We went on a weekday and there was only one other large family there with us. We basically had the place to ourselves so the kids had a ball. We spent approximately thirty to forty-five minutes there, making sure to stop and get a picture in the donut hole rock before we left.
Traveling to Rock City without doing something else in central Kansas would probably not have been worth it, so we timed our visit to go to the Salina Rolling Hills Zoo as well. I’ll post about that adventure in another post. But if you happen to be driving down I-70 in the middle of Kansas and would like a little pit stop adventure, try Rock City. Or do we what we did and make a day out of it by going to Moka’s, Rock City, and the zoo!