KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Summer is in full swing, which gives families across Kansas City an opportunity to hit the road and take advantage of our centralized location.
I reached out to local mom Amy Eastin, the creator of Everyday Outdoor Family and she came by our studio to talk about destinations you may think you know and some you've never heard of.
Let's start by taking a four-hour trip down to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
We all know where Tulsa, Oklahoma is, and that's not too far of a drive, but maybe you don't know all the things you can do there.
"So Tulsa is famous for its Park, the Gathering Place," Amy says. "It is 100% free. There's tons of playgrounds, there's free boat rentals, like kayaks, canoes, that sort of thing. There's biking trails, hiking trails, and it's along the riverfront so it's so beautiful. And Tulsa itself is just like this fun, funky town. I had known about the gathering place, but I didn't know about all the other cool stuff that Tulsa has, and it's along Route 66 so it has all these really fun places to stop for, like photo ops and different, unique, you know, sort of retro places because of that, and got an amazing food scene. So my family, we were so blown away by the food we just wanted to keep eating."
Our next destination is also south of Kansas City - Ponca, Arkansas.
"It's on the Buffalo National River, and it is so epically beautiful. Hemden Hollow is the tallest waterfall between the Appalachians and the Rockies, and you can either paddle in or you can hike in," Amy said. "So my friends and I, we paddled in in April, and it was absolutely beautiful. And there's also a trail there called Lost Valley, and it is just epically beautiful. There's a rock bridge, you can actually climb through it. And there's these beautiful half caves, waterfalls. And for the really adventurous, there's actually a cave that you can kind of squeeze into the back and find a 35 foot waterfall back there in the cave."
For our final road trip idea, we turn north and head to Boone, Iowa.
"So Boone, Iowa is about three hours from Kansas City. It's not that far from Des Moines, and it has this really cool, rare rail explorers experience, where you can actually pedal on train tracks. And it's kind of surreal. If you like heights, it might not be for you, because you do go over to trestle bridges. Oh, my God, that are a little bit high. But even little kids can do it. My son had a harness so he could come along, and it's actually peddled by with electricity. Okay, so it's not that hard to pedal. I was the only one pedaling the whole time. I had three kids. And it was, I never got winded, it was so beautiful. And actually, nearby there's also a beautiful state park called Ledges State Park, and it is just these epic rocks and it's just a really cool area to check out with your family."
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