Open Spaces

We slept in for our last sightseeing day in Valentine.  Our first stop of the day was Smith Falls.  The falls are in a state park about 20 West of Valentine.  The road out was a normal highway but turning off for the park we had another 5 miles of gravel road with the associated dust.  We soon found the ranger station and paid our out of state park fees.  It was $8 for us, Nebraskans get a $1 discount per person.

We did not know it at the time but our permit would come in handy later in the day.  They said it was a hike down to the Falls but it was really a short walk.  When we arrived we had the falls to ourselves which was rather nice.  As we were leaving a bunch of people showed up so our timing was good.

The park had a nice historic bridge that crossed the Niobrara river.  We first flew over the river on the way to South Dakota and it was fitting that we were ending our trip crossing it again.

After the falls it was lunch time.  CC had seen a Frosty Drive In which she remembered from her childhood (I won't make any comments on this).  Looking at the menu CC was surprised they served Oysters in such an inland location.  What she did not initially see is that they were the mountain variety (I'll wait while you Google Mountain Oysters).  She decided to go with the ice cream sundae and skip the oysters.  It was a drive in so I went with a chili dog.  They brought the food to the car and hung a tray on the window.  It was so 1950s.

Our next stop was 60 miles down the road as in highway 20.  We passed through several towns such as Kilgore (Pop 78), Nenzel (Pop 20), Cody (Pop 155) and Merriman (Pop 129).  The area is called the Sandhills and while it is suitable for cattle it has a lower nutritional density so while other places may need 2 acres per cow, they need about 24 acres per cow.  You see cows all along the route but not huge herds.

Our destination was the Bowring Ranch.  The Ranch was founded in 1894 and when the rancher's first wife died in childbirth, he later remarried.  His wife became the first female US senator and held a variety of important positions.  She passed in 1985 at the age of 93.  She willed the Ranch to the state to become a working monument and to preserve an example of ranch life.

Upon arrival, we paid the $2 per person tour fee and since we already had purchased a state park pass for the day, we did not need to buy a second.  They have a visitor center that has a nice movie and artifacts.  We then had a guide take us on a personal tour of her house.  She was friend with President Ike and her walls were covered with pictures of influential people she knew like Nixon, Kennedy, J. Edgar Hoover and many more.

She loved china, glass and silver and had an extensive collection.  Part of the tour is a bit creepy, she and the first wife died in the house on their respective beds and the beds are preserved with the same linens from that time.  There is even the book she was reading before she fell asleep for the final time.

There is a sod house which is a replica of the original ranch house. While it has been rebuilt, it contains artifacts from the late 1800s.  Oh and the ranch had a gravel road for the approach as well.  In between all this sightseeing I was studying the weather.  I had been watching it all week and I was a bit unhappy as I was predicting a hard time getting home or possibly having to overnight somewhere en-route.

I didn't let the pending weather spoil the fun though and after returning to Valentine we decided to try a local place for dinner.  We had prime rib, baked potato and salad.  They know there beef and potatoes but the salad was basically iceberg, a cucumber slice and a few pretzel sticks on top.  We guessed they ran out of croutons or maybe they don't exist in Nebraska.  Luckily they were pretty expert in the beef department.

We filled our car with gas in anticipation of an early departure.  Surprisingly the town has 3 gas stations.  I guess the highway 20 traffic supports it as there was only one other station  in the 60 miles we drove to the West.

Valentine Nebraska #42

Our next stop was Valentine Nebraska.  Valentine is located on the Northern border of Nebraska about in the middle of the state.  Why go to Valentine?  I have never toured Nebraska and when I started looking at possible places to visit I did not find that much.  We could have visited Warren Buffett in Omaha but he never answered my calls.  I did find a neat walking trail and a a converted railroad bridge.  I also figured it would be cool to see some more rural destinations.  Valentine, population 2785, would be my Nebraska.

We were in no rush this time and slept in.  Then it was off to the airport.  I had called ahead and the friendly folks at WestJet had our plane right out front.  This time our clearance was a direct climb to our requested altitude and direct to destination.  Does not get better than that.  The weather was also perfect with a bit of tailwind giving us 187 knot ground speed (215 mph).  This was a short hop at around 45 minutes.

Landing at Valentine we taxied up to the self serve pumps and the local staff came to meet us and help us fuel.  Parking was close so rather than starting the plane and maneuvering about, he helped me push the plane to its spot.  Pushing planes is pretty normal, I carry a bar that attached to the nose wheel so we can steer the plane as we push.  It weighs about 2700 pounds gassed up without people and luggage.  It is a bit of a chore to push solo especially since I bought my latest tire.  I splurged and got the high end ones with Kevlar belts.  They are excellent tires but stiffer and makes it hard to get rolling.  Once moving they ride well though.

After getting the plane chained down.  Yes chained, many places have ropes but some use metal chains.  I prefer ropes as they do not damage the paint if they flap up again st the bottom of the plane while attaching and removing.  Ropes are also easier to secure and have a bit of stretch.  Plane secured now to get our rental car.  In larger cities, you can call Avis, Hertz, Enterprise but at smaller spots you need to be more creative.

In Valentine you call the local Ford dealer.  Pat took my info over the phone and I emailed her my insurance and drivers license.  She left us a nice Ford Taurus parked at the airport with the keys tucked under the drivers visor.  I must admit, I asked the airport operator if he had the keys and he just smiled and said to check the car.  I looked in the car and could not find the keys but a quick call to Pat solved this.  Who leaves a nice car with the Keys in the visor, not us big city folks.

We headed over to our hotel which was rather close to the airport.  It was the first hotel I stayed in where I could see my plane from the hotel room.  No Marriott for us this time, the The Niobrara Lodge was the best the town had to offer.  To be fair it was equivalent to a Fairfield Inn.  The staff was friendly and they had our room ready even though we were a bit early for check in.

Our first stop was downtown where we walked the entire main street, it was not a long walk.  The biggest store was Youngs Western Wear that took up an entire block.  In addition to clothe you could get saddles and all manner of horse tack and ropes.  CC did find a cool T-shirt.

We then dropped by the Bunkhouse restaurant for lunch.  It was a local place and the menu reminded me of food from my childhood.  I had the open face hot roast beef sandwich, CC the grilled cheese and we split a slice of blueberry pie.  Not the healthiest but pretty good.

Our next goal was the cowboy trail.  Wikipedia describes it as "a rail trail in northern Nebraska. It is a multi-use recreational trail suitable for bicycling, walking and horseback riding. It occupies an abandoned Chicago and North Western Railway corridor."  The trail will eventually be about 320 miles long but currently about 200 miles are done stretching between Valentine and Norfolk (I'll wait a bit while you pull out Google maps).

The star of the trail is the old 148 foot tall railroad bridge.  Our hotel was near the trail and we could have walked a few miles to get to the bridge but we took the easy route and drove down to the river where they have a nice parking lot that gets you about a mile from the bridge.  We walked the bridge end to end and the views were good. except you can't really capture the bridge.  We headed back to the highway to really get a sense of the structure.

The next stop was the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge and a Park ranger had suggested going later in the day as you were more likely to see the animals.  Valentine is at the extreme edge of Central time and sunset is not until 9:30 PM.   This gave us plenty of time to rest up for our American safari.

Around 7 PM we headed out and quickly arrived.  They have conveniently located the reserve about 5 miles from town.  Unlike Custer where we search for bison for hours, we pretty much came upon them in the first 5 minutes.  Bison are big and dangerous so we did all our watching from inside the car.  While Custer had been pretty busy and there were more people than wildlife, we were finally outnumbered and we saw a herd.  Not sure what the minimum count is to officially be a herd but 30+ was good enough for me.

The bison are spectacular and while we mostly sat and watched, we did initially position so that the Bison were on CCs side and then drove down another mile and reversed so that the Bison were on my side.  After we were bison-ed out  we drove by some prairie dogs and went to see another waterfall.  Oh and the whole time we were back on dirt roads, another dirty car.

After the waterfall we drove back to the Niobrara river launch ramp and took in the nature.  We then had the difficult decision regarding dinner.  There is not a lot in Valentine.  Valentine does have a McDonald's but we opted for Pizza Hut.  Even though we were in the wilderness, I was able to pull off the road and using an ancient 3G cell signal, order some pizza and pasta.

We picnicked in our room and I watched some TV for the first time  since beginning the trip.

Faces on a wall

Some time ago we were talking about the places we wanted to visit and Mount Rushmore was on my list.  This was the real reason we came to Rapid City, this was the goal, yesterday was just a bonus.

I had assumed that Rapid City would be quite empty but the place was packed with tourists.  Apparently I was not the only one who wanted to see Mount Rushmore.  Coming in we had flown by the monument and it was about 5 minutes from there to the airport.  We were staying right by the airport and the drive back out was 35 minutes.  Sometimes flying is a whole lot faster, trouble is nowhere to land at the monument.

We arrived early to catch the good light, Rushmore faces Easterly.  The monument is free but parking costs $10 (I guess we could have hiked up from town).  It is popular, there are 2, 3 story garages.  The Monument is well designed.  You walk down a aisle that frames the carving until you reach the observation point.  From here you can walk a trail below the sculpture to get different views.

They also have a small museum with background on the design and construction.  After suitable gawking and picture taking we headed off for our next stop.  We had decided against the Crazy Horse memorial as it is still under construction and we had a good view the day before.  Our drive took us by where we could see it from the highway.

Our destination was Custer State park.  It happens to be by the town of Custer.  It was supposed to have lots of wildlife.  We entered the park and headed off on the wildlife loop road.  They have 1300 Bison in the park so we expected herds.

After a bit we happened by a bull or should I say he happened  by us.  We saw him coming down the road so we stopped to watch.  He came trotting right at us and walked by CC's side about a foot from the car.  After that we continued the search but came up dry.  A stop at the visitors center showed that the Bison had wandered off and were not easily visible.

We decided to drive over to town and get a snack and then do the Needles road.  Custer, SD is a small town that looks like it caters to the park tourists.  While we had only seen 1 Bison after driving for 90 minutes we saw several in town.  We parked at one end and quickly walked down main street and back.  Nothing grabbed us for lunch so we stopped at an old bank that had become a coffee shop and got Ice Cream cones for lunch.  Life is uncertain so having dessert first is always a good idea.

Our plan was to drive to the Needles road and take it back to the park core and then return to Rapid City on the Iron road.  We did this but added some detours.  The Needles road really showcases the Black Hills.  Now to be fair I would have called them the Dark Grey Hills but no one consulted me.

The highway winds through some incredible rock formations and there are two one lane tunnels through the hills.  We wound our way through stopping as we went to take in the views.

Coming off the Needles we stopped at the visitor center and found that the Bison had been sighted 25 minutes away in herd size numbers.  We decided to go take a look.  We did find some single Bison but no herds.  We took the opportunity to drive up another dirt road and get the car dirty again.  It was worth it though as we had a nice view.  We also saw some storms building on the horizon and decided it was time to head back.

We made our way to the Iron road which runs from Custer State Park to Mount Rushmore.  It is know for its views and cool highway design with loops and more narrow tunnels.  The skies were getting darker as we drove and while we did make a stop, we decided to push ahead.  This was a good move as the storms about caught us.

Heading back from the Black Hills into town we were finally pulling ahead of the storm.  What started as a few showers was now an organized line of severe weather.  We had left the plane tied down outside which is usually sufficient but with gusts of 50+ miles per hour coming I called the airport and asked them to put the plane in a hangar.  It costs a bit more but a while later we were in our room watching the storm rage and it seemed well worth it.

I'll leave you with a quick video clip of the narrow tunnels on the Needles and Iron roads.