Vintage Cliff Drive, Kansas City, Missouri.
Cliff Drive, established in 1900, is the only Missouri scenic byway in an urban area passing through Kansas City. The 4.5-mile historic drive is also one of the shortest scenic byways in America.
Situated within historic Kessler Park, established in 1895, the long, linear park stretches from roughly Paseo on the west to Chouteau trafficway on the east. The park and byway’s design and planning efforts were integral to Kansas City’s evolution and development as a major metropolitan area.
Visitors have been streaming through the park for over a century, the first by horse and buggy. The drive’s natural wonders include limestone bluffs next to steep forested slopes descending to the industrial Missouri River bottoms. A small portion of high-quality forest lies between Cliff Drive and Chestnut Trafficway, where large trees tower over ferns, wild ginger, Soloman’s seal, dogtooth violet, and many varieties of wildflowers.
Cliff Drive, Kansas City, Missouri.
Near the east entrance to Cliff Drive (just west of the intersection of Van Brunt and Gladstone Boulevards), a well-established but primitive trail runs along the steep slope paralleling Gladstone Boulevard. The trail travels through a forest of large maples, passing a half-dozen springs from the hillside.
Cliff Drive Fountain.
The famous Cliff Drive Spring originally served the pioneer Scaritt family in their log cabin high on the hillside above. Long ago, these pioneers kept their milk and butter cool in the spring’s waters. In 1899, the city acquired the property from the Scarritt estate. The natural spring has undergone many transformations over the years. Falling into disrepair, the fountain was restored in 1959, only to be closed in 1962 due to water contamination. Covered by earth, the scallop-shelled fountain was discovered again in the late 1980s by a contracting company and restored to its current state as a beautiful waterfall.
Today, Cliff Drive is closed to vehicles and open to walkers and bikers.
The byway runs from the intersection of The Paseo and Independence Avenue through to Indian Mound on Gladstone Boulevard at Belmont Boulevard. An easy way to access Cliff Drive is from an entrance near the Kansas City Museum at Benton and Gladstone Boulevards.
The paved walkway is about four miles each way. Pets are allowed on a leash.
Cliff Drive Trail.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated March 2025.
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