Kiowa Grasslands Trip

Current information from US Forest Service


In northeastern New Mexico and on into Texas and Oklahoma, the Kiowa National Grasslands stretches for miles and miles. Don't let the AAA map fool you, though. Mislabeled as the Rita Blanca National Grassland on their New Mexico map, in fact this is the Kiowa and it's only when you cross the state lines into Oklahoma or Texas that it becomes the Rita Blanca. There is a western unit of the Kiowa National Grassland some 75 miles further west.
Write the District Ranger's office in Clayton, New Mexico. You will receive a nice packet of info by return mail, he Forest Service people really take their mission seriously. Included will be a number of things I was totally unaware of: hiking along the Santa Fe Trail, camp sites, picnic areas and so forth. Best of all, there are specific call-outs referring to the grassland map. A map is available. It is a beautifully produced with information on recreation opportunities in the Kiowa, showing not only which roads are passable but also giving wonderful historical information.
Apparently not so well known as its neighbors like the Comanche or the Cimarron, it is one of the loveliest shortgrass prairies in the country. If this is your first time in New Mexico you will find the scenery which was spectacular and the weather which is wonderful almost year round. The people are friendly and accommodating. There's a lot of vacation fun to be had in and around the Kiowa National Grassland. There is also a two mile stretch of the Santa Fe Trail running right through the Kiowa (all on Federal land, so you can hike it legally). Just a few minutes away in Clayton Lake State Park is a world class set of dinosaur footprints.

If you chose to drive north from the Ranger station in Clayton, NM, it's a beautiful drive and the roads are gravel. It will take you through acres of the most beautiful shortgrass prairie you'll ever see...miles and miles of yucca, cactus and other wildflowers dotting the scene. Toward the start you can see the tiny little school house which gives this road its name. Along the way, still heading north, you cross the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail, passing Turkey Creek Camp, an important reprovisioning spot for the wagon trains. The ruins of its walls were still plainly visible.

Eventually you can turn eastward on the road which takes you to Seneca. This is really isolated! Sometimes you will not see another vehicle, and the only movement to the left or right will be either grazing cattle or other wildlife.

The Kiowa Grasslands is one in which you will feel really cut off the most—a not unpleasant sensation for travelers trying to forget the current century and the workaday worldleft behind. The carpet of shortgrass poking its way through scattered sharp-edged rocks carried on indefinitely and the horizon is unbroken in all directions, save one. Off to the southwest you can see the ghostly form of the Rabbit Ears Mountain, named for the Cheyenne chief who was killed by the Spaniards. He was supposedly interred in a hidden spot somewhere around here. The open prairie evokes many thoughts that remain well hidden in a forest.

Below the big azure sky full of puffy cumulous, a herd of cattle dawdling along, Attention must be paid to footsteps, always on the alert for a prairie rattlesnake. If they see you first, you will not see them.

When standing in the middle of a prairie like the Kiowa National Grassland, a human is a perfect lightning rod! If you are caught in a rainstorm on the prairie, do not stand in the open and do not stand under a tree. Lightening storms are fierce on the prairie. Also, look out for grass fires.

After the storm, the skies and rainbow are spectaclar.