Short description: Prairie dog at Kanopolis State Park in Ellsworth County. Kanopolis, the first state park in Kansas, is a good place to experience the rugged beauty of Dakota sandstone country. Red and orange sandstone are dominant in the rock layers of the Dakota Formation and older, underlying Kiowa Formation. Geologic features found in the park include crystals of selenite, a type of gypsum; cone-in-cone structures; clay-ironstone and sandstone concretions; cross-bedding; and fossils.
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