The sun was setting fast as my mom and I left Council Grove, Kansas, after a delicious steak dinner and a three hour expedition across the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Cattle fields surrounded the small town, the cows forming dark silhouettes against the rapidly graying skies.

We felt in high spirits after a gorgeous afternoon in the grassland, tallying up over 20 species of birds, including three lifers for me. We loved the undulating green of the Kansas Flint Hills, and the positive endorphins of the hike pumped through our veins.

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