Flat and boring? Not Kansas!

The Sunflower State has been blessed with diverse and beautiful scenery, ranging from forests to hills to wide-open farmland. Geologists have divided Kansas into 11 distinct regions, each with its own unique characteristics.

Our guide to the physiographic regions of Kansas will take you through our gorgeous state, exploring its topography, geology, soils, vegetation, wildlife, water resources, climate, and agricultural practices along the way. So pick a region and start your discovery of Kansas.

Arkansas River Lowlands

This sandy floodplain is a unique ecosystem, but one that challenges farmers to the utmost.

Chautauqua Hills

The Chautauqua Hills run in a narrow band (ten miles wide at most) from the Kansas–Oklahoma line up to about Yates Center.

Cherokee Lowlands

The Cherokee Lowlands occupy 1,000 square miles in Bourbon, Crawford, Cherokee, and Labette counties in southeastern Kansas.

Flint Hills

Many agree that, with its wide vistas, gorgeous sunsets, and perennial display of wildflowers, the Flint Hills region is one of the most beautiful places in the state, if not the world.

Glaciated Region

Rocky hills and wide valleys with accompanying floodplains provide a great deal of variation throughout the Glaciated Region.

High Plains

Across the western third of Kansas stretches a vast expanse of high tablelands, rolling hills, sand plains, and sometimes bare ground—the awesome High Plains.

Osage Cuestas

The Osage Cuestas, encompassing nearly all of eastern Kansas south of the Kansas River, are a region of hills and ridges, steep on one side and gently sloping on the other.

Ozark Plateau

Occupying only 55 square miles in Cherokee County, the Ozark Plateau is the smallest physiographic region in Kansas.

Red Hills

There’s nothing quite like this region of rust-colored buttes, mesas, sinkholes, and caves to give a person a strange feeling that “we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Smoky Hills

The Smoky Hills region, occupying the north-central part of Kansas, consists of three separate bands of hills running from southwest to northeast.

Wellington–McPherson Lowlands

The Wellington–McPherson Lowlands are like no other part of Kansas. Occupying the south-central part of the state, this region really is flat—except for the sand dunes.