This tour is like no other we have ever been on--and we've seen a good number of capitols as we have wandered around this country. From the outside, it looks like a traditional capitol building. But take a look at that very tall capitol dome, because that's where we are heading today.
That's because Kansas is the only place we have found that has a tour that takes people to the top of the dome. As soon as we arrived, we headed to the fifth floor. That's where we took this panorama shot that captures the view from the ground floor all the way to the top of the dome.
If you look closely, you can see the staircase that we will take upwards to the top. We thought that would be a fun view from there, but we didn't know that would just be the very beginning of the tour.
A more traditional tour starts each hour, and takes guests through the legislative branches and explains the artwork in the building. The dome tour starts 15 minutes past each hour and just focuses on the top of the capitol. While we waited on our tour, we took pictures across the rotunda on the fifth floor.
Then we had 50 sixth graders from Wichita join us to make for a more spirited dome tour. They were on their last-day-of-school field trip, and they all made it with us to the first landing as we could stand beside those big columns and take pictures across the rotunda.
The Kansas State Capitol has been newly refurbished and looks great. Part of the project was repainting all the delicate artwork that we can see at the top of the dome. They also repainted just the front-facing half of each of those gold columns, as you can see in the picture below. Years ago, anyone could come to this level by themselves, and many wrote their names on the backside of those columns. To preserve some of those very old signatures, the refurbishment committee decided to leave them for the dome tour guests to see on the back side.
As we started up the next staircase, we lost five of our sixth graders who decided that the views from any higher would be too scary. So instead of going up, they went back down to the fifth floor.
Our next stop brought us to eye level with that large light fixture that had seemed so tiny from below. Originally it housed gas-powered lights that lit up the dome when it was built in 1897.
But during World War II, the state took this huge light fixture down so they could donate it to the metal recycling effort of the war. It wasn't until the recent refurbishment that the state of Kansas replaced it with a replica--now powered with electricity. We wondered how they changed those light bulbs suspended so high above the capitol floor.
We lost a few more sixth graders as we took another staircase to a level that is not even visible from the inside of the capitol building. We are now standing beside that glass dome, inside a part of the capitol that we didn't even know existed.
Our view from the top of the glass dome reveals a large apparatus that answers our question about changing those light bulbs. The pulley system lowers that huge light fixture all the way to the first floor so the bulbs can be changed.
Standing at the top of the dome, we could look up to see the actual roof of the capitol far above. We could also see the yellow staircase where we were heading next.
At this point we lost some more sixth graders and a couple adults that decided not to make that final ascent to the top.
Even for people with no fear of heights, that final winding staircase is a little daunting.
But at the top of that last staircase is the outside door that opens out onto the balcony railing for a great view over the capital city of Topeka. As you can tell from Denisa's hair, it's a little windy at the top today.
We snapped a picture of Mark and our tour guide. He doesn't have to worry about getting exercise when he gets home from work. He goes up 297 steps as many as six times each day at his job.
We thought the best view from the top was towards the north. We could see the bridge that crosses the Kansas River in Topeka, as well as the large grain elevators on the edge of the city.
When we looked up, we could just see the arm and the arrow tip of the Native American statue at the very top of the dome. We learned from our tour guide that arrow is pointed to the north star.
We were allowed to go back down the 297 stairs at our own pace. So we had time to take pictures from different perspectives on our trip down.
As you can see, that final suspended staircase took us several floors above the frosted glass of the rotunda dome.
We could stop to see the top of the glass dome, and the students waiting beside it.
We could peek between the metal floral motifs to see the more ornamental part of the dome that can be seen from below.
Now when we look up and see that glass dome, we see it in a whole new way. We know that so much more lies above that frosted glass, and that "tiny" light fixture is bigger than it looks, and those gold columns are only painted on one side. What an interesting tour we got of the Kansas Dome!
We didn't take the "historical tour" of the capitol this time, but we did wander around to see some of the artwork. Here Mark is putting on his best farmer's pose as the two of them look over the harvested hay and the herefords in the meadow.
Back outside, We took one more picture with Denisa on the front step of the capitol building. Now we notice things that we had overlooked before. We see how big the statue at the top must be, and see those oval windows in the dome that provided light for our trip to the top.
If we zoom in, we can see the railing where we stepped out to get our views high above Topeka. As we left this capital city, we both agree that Kansas has The. Best. State. Capitol. Tour. Ever.
O agree! Incredible! I'm surprised they allowed such great access, especially to kids. That your guide is really fit.
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