Wild Turkeys in Nebraska

Click to enlarge for full glorious effect.

Nebraska: Omaha

It is a long way back to St. Louis from Valentine NE.  We stopped for the night in Omaha and took a couple hours on Sunday morning to look around, finding a stiltwalker on the plaza in front of the convention center.

Six figures, a gigantic stainless steel clock and assorted shiny globes comprise the wonderous and colorful composition Illumina by Matthew Placzek of Omaha.

Nebraska: Western Sandhills

These pictures are from early October 2004 when I came to the Sandhills to find Mari Sandoz.  Old Jules, her biography of her father, is a favorite of mine.  This marker is at the site of the Sandoz sod house and homestead, south of Gordon and 122 miles from Valentine. The other photos on today's post are from that trip, here or nearby.

Nebraska: Smith Falls State Park

On the south rim of the Niobrara, the land dries out stretching away to the sandhills.  Two hundred yards away in the other direction, looking down toward the river, everything is green.

Nebraska: Valentine National Wildlife Refuge

Many lakes sit amid the sandhills.  The hills are but a few dry years away from deserthood, but where it is flat the water is so close to the surface that cattle ranching is possible, and year-round marshes and lakes are scattered everywhere.

Nebraska: On the Niobrara River

We were so lucky!  Wednesday dawned clear and warmer.  The rest of the week before (and after) Wednesday were colder by at least ten degrees and more cloudy than not.

I have dreamed about canoeing on the Niobrara.  We had a great day on the water.

There are Mule Deer in the river in the last photo; blow it up for the full effect.

Nebraska: Niobrara River Valley

Black Tailed Prairie Dogs in Prairie Dog Town at Fort Niograra National Wildlife Refuge; Porcupine at Smith Falls State Park; Elk (in captivity); Mule Deer (from our porch); Joli in the Niobrara River

Nebraska: Great Horned Owl

A Great Horned Owl sat on the ground directly in front of our cabin for 20 minutes as we quietly watched  in the fading light.  It was almost cat-like, comfortable on the ground, head rotating considerably more than 180 degrees, and waiting.  Those "ears" are plumicorns, feather tufts having nothing to do with hearing, but they twitch like cats' ears.

Nebraska Vacation

Sandhills, Niobrara River, native species including several large mammels, a complicated natural history...this place is a treasure.  


The Niobrara lies at the northern edge of the Ogallala aquifer, one of the largest sources of underground water in the world.  Water seeps from the aquifer to form the river, highly deserving of the designation National Wild and Scenic River.

The Sandhills is not desert by the grace of a wetter climate today than when it was formed.  Surprising, at first sight, are the lakes, water from the aquifer that pools at the surface.

Six distinct ecosystems meet at the Niobrara: Northern Boreal forest (Paper Birch), Rocky Mountain forest (Ponderosa pines), Eastern Diceduous forest (Black Walnut), and three kinds of grasslands.

Think of bison...in numbers without end, now in preserves in managed herds.  Think of the Souix people ...many bands moving about on the land with the seasons, now on reservations.  Think of paleowater...once inexhaustible, now quickly depleting.

I found this place on a cross-country drive a few years ago and longed to see it again.

The first picture is taken on the way, from a fire tower in the Nebraska National Forest, an experiment in planting a forest for the first time on the Sandhills. The Civilian Conservation Corps was here too (if you read this blog you know I am a big fan of the CCC), employing young Nebraska men during the Great Depression.  Most of the Sandhills has no naturally occurring trees except near surface water.

The second picture is the Niobrara River with the the Sandhills to the south.