My friend and I are planning a road trip this summer to Colorado, and we’ll be driving straight on I-70 (through Missouri and then Kansas) almost the whole time. We don’t want to spend too much time sightseeing on the way there because the main objective is Colorado, but I want to know if there is anything worth doing or seeing off of I-70 in either of those two states?
Views? Restaurants? Some kind of Museum? We’re not going to be stopping much but if there is anything really special on the way there, I want to know.
My grandma lives just off that road in Kansas I’ve driven it more then a few times. My opinion for the Kansas part, no. I’ve come up against this too. I’m visiting in June and looking to do something interesting so we’re heading to Colorado too for a few days.
The only thing mildly interesting in Kansas is Dodge City and that’s way off the freeway.
In Missouri though St. Louis aint too bad. You can check out the arch then drive for the next straight on to the mountains.
If you have some time to just kick around, try stopping in a couple college towns-- Columbia, MO (about 2 hours east of KC) and Lawrence, KS (an hour west of KC). Both are fun & have unique eateries & shops.
A lot (certainly not all) of the fun stuff in Lawrence is located on Massachussettes Street, which is very easy to get to from I-70. Look for a cool, old fashioned ice cream parlor & a neat old-style toy store. There’s a shop called Waxman on the north end of Mass that makes their own kick ass candles, if you’re into that type of thing. There’s also a shop called Brits where you can purchase fun and interesting British imported foods & stuff. I believe KU has a very cool natural history museum, but I may be remembering a single exhibition years ago. I won’t claim to be an expert on Lawrence… Film Geek will likely pop in soon to tell you more.
You’ll drive right by our sports stadiums between Independence and KC-- just look to your left. South of downtown KC, there’s Science City, which houses an IMAX theater and a planetarium. On the northern edge of downtown, there’s the Arabia Steamboat Museum. I also recommend the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. If you want to drive through the hoity-toity part of town, drive through The Plaza (very close to the Nelson). If you’d like to go bar hopping, go to the Westport area. Of course, all of this depends on the time of day & how long you’re staying.
Keep in mind that KC is known for steaks & BBQ. For steaks, I’d recommend the Hereford House or the Majestic Steak House. There’s a relatively new Hereford within spitting distance of I-70 in Independence (take the Little Blue Parkway exit). Their cedar plank salmon and spinach salad is to die for… Of course, you can’t go wrong with a ribeye. The original location is downtown and is a bit harder to navigate. The Majestic is at 931 Broadway, in downtown KC.
As for BBQ, I’d recommend Arthur Bryant’s or LC’s, but Film Geek and **Skip Magic **will come in and tell you to go elsewhere… We could probably narrow your choices down if you tell us what kind of sauce you like.
Well, you can get off the highway in western Kansas, get out of your car, turn your face to the wind sweeping down the plain, and appreciate the fact that you’re in the middle of nowhere.
Three hours down the road you can pull off the highway, get out of the car, turn your face to the wind sweeping down the plain, and appreciate the fact that you’re still in the middle of nowhere. And where the hell are the mountains?
One time driving east from Denver, I took Rt. 36 across eastern CO, then Kansas, then across Missouri to Hannibal, with all the Mark Twain stuff. It was a nice alternative to I-70, went through a bunch of small towns, but going west you’ll have Colorado fever big time by the time you get out there, so it’s probably not be the best option.
Lawrence is definitely a wonderful place to stop. You can get out of the car, stretch your legs get a little shopping or window shopping done and be back on the road after a quick lunch. The ‘shopping’ part of Mass runs from 6th St to 14th or so. Lawrence is a grid with N/S streets having the names of US states (in order of admission to the union) and E/W streets generally being numbers. This changes a bit in North Lawrence (near the turnpike) so ignore that part of town.
Be aware that I 70 is a turnpike through this part of Kansas, so you’ll have to pay a small toll.
Massachusetts St is the place to go if you only come here once. Recommendations: Sylas and Maddy’s Ice Cream (around 11th and Mass). Free State Brewing Company (the oldest operating brewery in Kansas at 7th and Mass). Brits and Au Marche sell imported food and gifts, Waxman has the best candles in town, really just walk up and down Mass (the whole thing takes maybe 10 minutes each side).
There is no smoking indoors anywhere in town, beer is plentiful and you will get carded. Lots of college kids, piercings and tattoos. All in all, a good place. There isn’t much else between here and Denver, but it’s only about 9 hours (we drove it last year), so it’s easy enough to do in a stretch without too much trouble. If you think you might even be close to getting low on gas by the time you reach Colby, KS, stop. Get a drink, take a leak, get gas. There is nothing between you and Denver but a very small town (a gas station and a railroad crossing) called Limon, CO for which you will see no less than 11 billion signs letting you know HEY! LIMON IS COMING! WOO!
Watch for the change from Central to Mountain time in western KS. There is a sign.
Feel free to email me for any more info. It’s in the profile.
Wright City MO has the kitchy “50’s Cafe”, which used to be the Elvis Cafe until Graceland sued them into submission.
Lots of Elvis memorabilia. Lots. The food was kind of okay, last time I was there.
There is an outlet mall in Warrenton MO. It’s okay.
In St. Louis the Arch is nice if you’ve never been; but to go up will require several hours of your time. The new Bush Stadium will be almost finished, if you’re a baseball fanatic.
If you’re stopping for lunch, either downtown St. Louis or downtown St. Charles are good options off I-70. Downtown St. Louis I like Charlie Gitto’s Pasta House but there are good restaurants either on Laclede’s Landing (next to the Arch) or in the Soulard area.
In St. Charles you want to take the first exit after the Missouri River and head toward the riverfront (“Historic St. Charles”). There’s a little cobblestone street with antique shops and a few bistro restaurants, and the Trailhead Brewery.
It’s definitely a different kind of attraction than say, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, but consider a stop at the Wonder Tower in Genoa, Colo. (about 10 miles east of the aforementioned Limon) On a eccentricity scale, the Wonder Tower buries the needle. Ripley did supposedly confirm that one can see six states from the top of the tower; I remain skeptical, but it does provide a view of the countryside that will be memorable more for the effort than the vista itself. You’ll be about an hour and a half from either Colorado Springs or Denver at that point. You’ll catch your first view of Pike’s Peak just west of Genoa.
If you’re looking to maximize the eccentricity of your travels, Prairie Dog Town, in Oakley, Kansas, offers diversions similar to the Wonder Tower. Both are right off I-70, both have prominent and frequent signage as one approaches, and both will take less than 30-45 minutes.
I second the recommendations of the Arabia Museum and the St. Louis Arch. And Kauffman Stadium is just off I-70. The Royals may suck, but it’s a beautiful place to watch a baseball game.
You could stop in Rock City in Minneapolis, KS if you’re interested in geology. It’s pretty small so you don’t have to spend a lot of time there…very neat!
You could see some live jazz on Vine. There is a wonderful bar on 37th and Broadway in KC that used to be owned by Bobby Seale co-founder of the Black Panthers called The Hangout. I recommend it whole heartedly. Drive around my neighborhood, the West Bottoms and possibly see packs of wild dogs in the street and army tanks on trains.
If you like BBQ- Arthur Byrants
Fried chicken? Stroud’s
Burgers- Westport flea market.
Avoid the plaza
Get to Colorado as soon as possible - switching off driving as much as possible. Arrive with as much time to spare.
If you get tired of Colorado, you now have the time to take a leisurely day or two back on the return trip.
However, if you burn off your extra time at the beginning while on your way, you’re going to feel rushed the rest of the trip.
Of course, this depends upon how long the entire trip is - anything less than two weeks, you should do Colorado first with a leisurely return trip at the end (ending vacations on a rush sucks). However, if you have more than a month, it doesn’t really matter.
As for what to do - the only thing I would care for is to get the best steak in Kansas City.
Well, according to this site, you will be taking this route, correct? (Though not in that order…)
(I couldn’t bring up the cities you’d be traveling through offhand, so I looked it up.)
This site lists places of interest, like Historical, Art, or Natural Features. Definitely check out what Topeka has to offer, it also has Museums. (Look at all the catagories, and list the ones that catch your interest.) There are several places you might find interesting. I sort of wish you were going through Hutchinson, their Cosmosphere is worth a stop for a day. (It is actually world renowned.) I’d say it’s worth a side trek even, if you can manage it. They have Russian Space artifacts, including Sputnik prototypes (or is it what would have been an alternate if Sputnik malfunctioned, can’t recall) as well as an actual fully intact space capsule that astronauts rode in orbit in the early years of the Space Race.
