Lake Minatare and Visit to Wildcat Hills State Park

After our visit to Chimney Rock, we decided to try our luck and go to the North Platte River National Wildlife Refuge located near Lake Minatare.  Located just 8 miles north of the town of Scottsbluff, the lake was formed by a decree by President Wilson to build a reservoir for irrigation for the farmlands.  Big lake - 2,158 acres of water.  The wildlife refuge was a lost cause to us - the boating and camping done right now chases every wild thing away.  The ranger we talked to said that late fall and early spring are great times to be here to see the migration of the birds.  Oh well.

Lake Minatare

The lighthouse

The ranger did tell us about the landmark of the park - a 55 foot tall lighthouse!  Yep, the only one in Nebraska.  No light at the top but we could climb up and see the 360 view of the lake and area.  Lots of boaters and swimmers on the lake.  Could hear country music blaring out of boats - was looking to see if any of them were rafted up together having a party out on the lake.  Could also see that if we lived in this area, Lake Minatare would be part of our lives - the draw of the water is still there.

Since the day was still young, we drove back through Scottsbluff to just south of town and to the Wildcat Hills State Park.  This park offers hiking trails, an interpretive center, primitive camping sites (not interested in that), educational and biological opportunities.  The Saber Tooth tiger prowled these hills millions of years ago and archaeologists discovered the bone fragments of a tiger with its teeth embedded in a bone of another animal.  The center is mainly used for day use and geared for children and classroom instruction.  Breathtaking views from 5000 feet looking out towards Scott's Bluff.

Scott's Bluff in the distance

Chimney Rock

The most recognized landmark of the west ward journey of the 1800's was Chimney Rock.  This remnant of the ancient high plains left over of volcanic eruptions, then erosion over millions of years caused this monolith type column.  When we were visiting Scott's Bluff National Monument yesterday and was on top, we could see Chimney Rock way in the distance.  I could see how this monolith was a landmark - when we looked west towards Scott's Bluff, you saw this huge sandstone formation with an opening in the middle - this is Mitchell's Pass that was done by the US Army in 1850.  Not so daunting since you knew there was a pass.  But this Chimney Rock - can you imagine what the emigrants thought when they first caught glimpse of this column from the middle of the Nebraska wilderness, knowing that as they passed by Chimney Rock, and could see Scott's Bluff in the distance, they have traveled 1/3 of the route to Oregon or California?  That the worst was yet to come with transversing mountains?  Many of the journal entries of emigrants as they passed this way said they were very bored.  Dave and I are constantly amazed as to how they did it - their perseverance, their willingness to walk thousands of miles, giving up everything and probably loosing family members to death by diseases or mere exhaustion.  Wow.

Chimney Rock - about 8 miles in distance

Different Trails as they crossed the country

At the visitors center they housed a great museum dedicated to the endeavor, watched the video, took some pictures, then drove on a dirt road to get within 1/2 mile of the structure.  Can't get any closer to it.  There was a cemetery right near the end of the dirt road and walked through those hallowed grounds.  Very eerie.

Eroding as we speak

Chimney Rock Cemetery

Our next jaunt was to find the Oregon Trails Wagon Train that said it was just 2 miles from Chimney Rock.  Down another dirt road, this time the signs all said we were traveling on the actual Oregon Trail which paralleled the North Platte River.  Rustic.  Then we saw the signs for the Wagon Train so turned into the driveway.  Sure enough - I think someone had collected, or was in the family for generations, old wagons and carts - they sure looked very old.  On every fencepost by the abandoned wagons, an old boot was placed upside down on the post.  Quirky.  At the end of the driveway was a campground - only I thought maybe Judd Clampet of the Beverly Hillbillies was going to come out to greet us, possibly with no teeth, pants hitched up to his chin.  We turned around even though the sign said howdy, welcome.  Maybe another day.

Howdy - Welcome 

Abandoned wagons

Unique fence post decorations

Visit to Scotts Bluff National Monument

When I was in grade school and learning American History, I read about how the pioneers crossed the plains and when then got to some very large sandstone formations, they knew they had come 1/3 of the way and still had to cross the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevadas (if going on to California or Oregon).  I had no idea what to expect when we visited the National Monument today.  It is dedicated to those early pioneers who traveled across the plains to parts west.

Scotts Bluff

The Bluffs are the remnants of ancestral high plains dating back over 10 million years ago.  Erosion by wind, water, and occasional volcanic eruptions have eroded the bluffs to what it is today, sinking down and washing away to the flatland of the today's plains, and the Bluffs are still eroding.  For over 10,000 years the formations have been a prairie pathway to native animals and people.  The fur trappers, Indians, and then the pioneers, the Bluff became familiar sight for those passing through.  In 1828 Hiram Scott, a fur trapper with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, died near the bluff and the named was change to honor him.  Before that it was called Me-a-pa-te, meaning "hill that is hard to go around."

The wave of emigrants became a surge after the California Gold Rush of the 1850s and the emigrants felt the original wagon trail was too rugged over the Bluff so that the US Army was called into action and greatly improved the pass and shortened the route by eight miles - a full day's journey.  We hiked over this improved pass, today it's called Mitchell Pass, and saw the original ruts and trail of the Oregon/California/Mormon trail as well as the Pony Express route.

The different routes of the emigrants

Sentinel of the westward movement

The park has a paved road that travels up and over Scotts Bluff to lookouts.  From different vantage points you can see way in the distance - we saw Chimney Rock about 20 miles away.  This Rock was also a landmark for the pioneers.  The pioneers typically followed rivers for water needs and from the north side of the Bluff we could see the North Platte River meandering through the town of Scottsbluff.  What was cool to us - we saw the North Platte River when we were in Casper, Wyoming a couple of years ago and learned the significance of this important river.

Pony Express came through here

That is a lot of people!

Hiked up and over Mitchell's Pass - ruts right by us

How did they do it?

Had to drive thru 3 tunnels to get to top

Actual place of the trails

Nebraska

Left this morning from Strasburg and decided to take state routes to get to Scotts Bluff, Nebraska instead of driving on interstates.  Was very pleased with our decision.  Rolling hills, up and down, very little farms, mostly wide open grazing land.  Did not see a lot of cattle or horses, I guess since there were no trees, the animals do not have a natural shelter in case of bad weather.  Saw where the roads would be closed in bad weather - the gates are positioned to shut down any entrance onto. Not sure what people do for a living being out in the middle of nowhere.  Have to drive a really fur piece just to get to a store or gas station. Came over a rise and saw the High Plains RaceTrack with motorcycles running around the track.  Middle of nowhere!

Wide open nothingness

Wind Farm

We split the driving, I took the first leg and then Dave took over near Kimball. Came into the town of Brush, Colorado and was surprised at the bigness of it.  Continued north through the  National Prairie Grasslands and crossed into Nebraska.  Saw a really big wind farm, those babies are tall.  As we got within 20 miles of Gering the landscape changed - looked more like the Badlands of South Dakota than Nebraska, what ever Nebraska is supposed to look like.  Had to get on Interstate 80 for a whopping 2 miles, then headed north again to Kimball, Nebraska.  Route 71 took us from a small town about 35 east of Strasburg, Colorado this morning all the way to here in Gering/Scotts Bluff, Nebraska.  We put 194 miles on the RV, was a really great drive.  And because we were on country roads and cannot speed, the 194 miles took us almost 5 hours.  Not bad.

Large sandstone structures as we neared Gering

The campground we are in is a city campground, was surprised to see the Gering Police come through cruising by.  As we look out our side windows we are looking at Scotts Bluff National Monument.  We will visit the park tomorrow and get acclimated.  This was an important stop over for the Mormon/Oregon/California Pioneer Trails/was a Pony Express station/military outpost of the mid 1850s.

Strange - almost looked like HooDoos

And it is very quiet here!  Yay!  The cats are great, Dave is doing great. RV holding up well.

Centennial, Strasburg, and Rain

We were able to get together again with Caryn, Scott, Emily, and her two children, Cody and Imana Wednesday afternoon, spending quality time and playing with the kids.  They are located south of Denver in Centennial and the drive there was hectic going into the Denver city proper.  Lots of traffic.  Caryn prepared a wonderful Italian dinner for us and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together.  On the way home we were treated to a magnificent sunset over the Rocky Mountains as we drove east bound on Interstate 70 to Strasburg.  Today was spent cleaning and laundry and waiting out a storm that was predicted to hit with high winds and hail by 1pm.  Right on the dot.  So much rain it flooded the campground.  Three hours later, sun out, and many sites are still under water.  Hope it goes down before the next wave of campers come in.  Campground is booked starting today through Sunday - Strasburg has Home Days starting in the morning with all kinds of hometown fun planned.

Flooded campground

Once the rain slowed way down we headed into town and to the Comanche Crossing Historical Society.  Strasburg was originally called Comanche Crossing.  The ah-ha came when we discovered that on August 15, 1870, the Kansas Pacific Railway joined the first continuous, uninterrupted chain of railroads across the United States from New York to San Francisco. A year earlier the joining of the first transcontinental railroad was at Promontory Point, Utah was huge news! However, this was a misnomer - west bound passengers still had to get off the train at Omaha, Nebraska and ferry across the Missouri River and get back on another train.  Those passengers leaving San Francisco had to get off the train at Sacramento, ferry across the San Francisco Bay, and get back on another train heading east. Not until this segment was completed and bridges built over the respective waters could a person continuously stay on a train and go all the way across the country.  Nicely documented museum.  And it was free - something you just don't see anymore.

Map of Railroads 1870

Original Strasburg Depot

Tomorrow we head a tidge east but more north to Scotts Bluff, Nebraska.   Will do some sight seeing there before really moving east bound from then on.  Unsure of our route from Scotts Bluff, we have some time to do more sightseeing before we have to be in Cleveland by the middle of September.

Visiting and Laying Low

We spent a fun Sunday with Emily and her two children, Cody and Imana, when they came to visit us here at the campground.  KOAs are noted to be very family friendly and this particular one is no exception.  A kiddie wadding pool plus a regular size one, playground (the kids had a fun time with the old fashioned merry-go-round - they had never seen one before), on weekends they have hay rides with a battle of water balloons along the way.  An arcade is inside the building, an ice cream parlor and pizza shop are located inside.  Weekends they offer free movies and this past weekend was the Disney movie "Frozen".   Lots of kids here, fun to watch them.  This campground is so busy, 90 sites and very few are here long term.  By 9am there is mass exodus and then by noon the next wave comes in.

Monday we had more errands to run, drove into Denver and further west to the base of the Rockies to Golden to visit an RV store for parts. Nothing broken, just still making changes to the RV.  When we had our previous RV we were hesitant to make changes to make it really comfy.  About 3 years into owning it, the changes came about and never stopped.  We are not hesitant now - especially learning the re-sale value of an RV does not change if you make changes as long as it is like-for-like type changes.  In other words - don't like the dining table?  Change it to one you do like.  Etc.

Tuesday was more of the same with going shopping and restocking. Today we head to Emily's to visit with the rest of the family (our niece and nephew Caryn and Scott plus the 3 of them) we did not see Sunday and have a nice afternoon and dinner with them.  Tomorrow will be spent cleaning and laundry in the morning and the afternoon we are going to the town's historical museum to look see.  We take off Friday morning for Scotts Bluff, Nebraska.  Our furtherest northern trek and then start the eastward movement towards Cleveland.

Speaking of changes to the RV - how do you like our security system?  Two phase - if you get through one level, you have the next to deal with.  I swear they beg us each morning to open the door.

Guard Cats!

Strasburg Colorado

Made the move this morning from Blanca to a KOA (Kampground Of America), last time we stayed at a KOA was 4 years ago.  However, we had no choice when we were looking for somewhere to camp near Centennial, Colorado.  Our niece and her family live there and we wanted to stop to say hello - last time we stopped for a visit was 3 years ago!

No available campgrounds to be found.  All booked.  State park campgrounds, city park campgrounds, various camping club campgrounds.  Zilch.  Other than this KOA and there are few sights left.  Not sure why.  But glad we found something - we have a little drive back west to visit Caryn, but oh well.

Our drive was nothing exciting.  Forgot we had to drive through cities to get here.  Drove our last mountain pass over the Rocky Mountains and then picked up Interstate 25 heading north in Walsenburg.  Pueblo was our first big city to maneuver through, then Colorado Springs.  Passed the Air Force Academy and the US Olympic headquarters. Waved at Pike's Peak and said our final goodbye to mountains until our return trip back this fall.  Weird - we have been near mountain ranges for the last 4 years!  Will be a boring ride heading east through the corn fields and flatland.  About 20 miles south of Denver we took the by-pass which is an outer belt around Denver and started our heading east bound on Interstate 70.

Will be here a week, visit with Caryn, do major shopping - haven't been near a major city with all the stores since the 12th of July.  Need to stock up.