Nebraska National Monuments
The high temperatures continued on the great plains – 86 degrees at 8 AM. Ugh. Fortunately (?) there were extremely high cross winds as I headed north out of Kimball for the Scott’s Bluff National Monument. The ride was predominately though gently rolling grazing land or farmland with more of the former than the later. Rolling enough that you didn’t necessarily get the sense of huge, wide-open spaces as you can get out on the plains.
As you approach the Scott’s Bluff NM area, the topography becomes hillier before you get to the bluffs on either side of the North Platte River. This small patch of Nebraska was actually much nicer than I had anticipated. And, to be fair, even the rolling grasslands were nice in their way.
Scotts Bluff rises roughly 800 feet above the North Platte River and was a landmark for those passing both directions along the Oregon Trail. And this includes trappers, traders, and native americans long before the great westward expansion of settlers.
The monument includes a decent visitor center, a road up to the top of the bluff, and a few hiking trails. The road to the top of the bluff was constructed by the CCC and included three short tunnels. The trails include a couple of short ones from the parking area on top of the bluff, one that rises up to the top of the bluff from the visitor center and is about 1.7 miles one way, and one that runs along the original Oregon Trail and is about 1.2 miles round trip. Given how hot the day was, I opted for the last of the three. Not a ton of photos but…
After a couple of hours on site, I headed north to the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. Great visitor center with much of the building dedicated to the huge number of Miocene mammal fossils discovered in and around a water hole that ultimately dried up. The geologic evidence suggests the area was subjected to a severe and protracted drought and that the herbivores largely starved and the carnivores naturally followed. Some wild looking species that ultimately went extinct – daeodon (terrible dog), daphoenodon (beardog), moropus (horse-like thing, sort of). Maybe one of the most interesting fossils is a trace fossil of a beaverlike creature. They had dug burrows that corkscrewed down and then had a living chamber that was slightly raised from the bottom of the corkscrew.
The remaining nearly half of the visitor center is dedicated to objects the Ogalala Lakota and Cheyenne gave to James Cook as gifts. Cook was a frontiersman, hunter, and scout who eventually settled near the fossil beds. He regularly hosted the Sioux and Cheyenne at his ranch. The items are interesting but the displays are generally poorly lit.
There are two hiking trails on site; one is roughly 3 miles round trip and the other is half that. Again, it was hot enough I didn’t venture out either.
If you are going to visit the site, be aware that there aren’t food or beverages available on site.
After leaving the fossil beds, I headed towards the Black Hills in South Dakota with the idea that I would stay somewhere on the south end of the hills. Unfortunately by the time I got there all the hotels were booked until I reached Rapid City. And then I overpaid for a meh hotel room. Part of what made me arrive late was a 40 mile ‘shortcut’ down a dirt road. It was actually really nice to see some of the very rural parts of Nebraska and South Dakota.
And, of course, once I got into Custer State Park, I ran into the obligatory big horn sheep.
