Kansas is a state of America. It has 22 state parks, 24 federal reservoirs, 48 state fishing lakes, over 100 campsites and more than 304,000 acres of public hunting and game management lands. The state parks and recreation areas covered 33,000 acres and were visited by 7,310,000 tourists in 2005. Recreation visits to national park service areas totaled 125,408 in 2006. The state contains two national historic sites, Fort Larned and Fort Scott (19th-century army bases on the old frontier), and also two frontier-town reproductions, Historic Wichita Cowtown and Old Front Street in Dodge City. The state capital, Topeka, is a popular tourist destination, with attractions such as the state historical museum and the Menninger Foundation.

The state of Kansas is in the Midwest region of the USA, bordered by Nebraska to the north, Missouri to the east, Oklahoma to the south and Colorado to the west. The western part of Kansas lies in the eastern extremity of the Great Plains and is the highest region of the state, reaching 1,231 m (4,039 ft) at Mount Sunflower. The Smoky Hills and the Central Plains occupy the centre of the state. The land slopes down from the arid country near the Colorado border towards the east, where the Osage Plains, Flint Hills and Arkansas River Lowlands are found.