On my flight from Missouri to Colorado this morning, clouds obscured the landscape for most of the journey. When they finally cleared, we were just north of a large reservoir that was oriented west to east; it was the Cedar Bluff Reservoir, southeast of WaKeeney, Kansas.
Created by a dam on the Smoky Hill River, the reservoir was established for irrigation purposes but is also home to Cedar Bluff State Park. West (upstream) from this lake, the Smoky Hill River and its numerous tributaries have cut shallow canyons through a veneer of Tertiary sediments and into the Cretaceous chalk of western Kansas; the latter was deposited in a broad seaway that extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Northwest some 100 million years ago.
As we entered Colorado, the uppermost tributaries of the Smoky Hill River gave way to tributaries of the Republican River (to the north) and the Arkansas River (to the south). After passing over a cluster of reservoirs north of Lamar, our route curved NNW toward Denver and the snowy peaks of the Rockies (the Culebra Range, Spanish Peaks, Sangre de Cristo Range, Pike's Peak Massiff, Kenosha and Platte River Mountains, Mt. Evans Massif and the Continental Divide, south to north) gleamed in the bright morning sunshine.
Created by a dam on the Smoky Hill River, the reservoir was established for irrigation purposes but is also home to Cedar Bluff State Park. West (upstream) from this lake, the Smoky Hill River and its numerous tributaries have cut shallow canyons through a veneer of Tertiary sediments and into the Cretaceous chalk of western Kansas; the latter was deposited in a broad seaway that extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Northwest some 100 million years ago.
As we entered Colorado, the uppermost tributaries of the Smoky Hill River gave way to tributaries of the Republican River (to the north) and the Arkansas River (to the south). After passing over a cluster of reservoirs north of Lamar, our route curved NNW toward Denver and the snowy peaks of the Rockies (the Culebra Range, Spanish Peaks, Sangre de Cristo Range, Pike's Peak Massiff, Kenosha and Platte River Mountains, Mt. Evans Massif and the Continental Divide, south to north) gleamed in the bright morning sunshine.
