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Every 20-30 miles, we went through a small (~500) person town with a gas station. All the towns seemed like they could be Anywhereville USA -- well kept lawns and cute slightly older, non-cookie cutter houses. In Cherry County, NE, the county motto is "God's Own Cow Country". We looked it up later -- it's bigger than the state of Connecticut, but only has 6000 people. With more than a square mile of lush, green grass per person, each person should produce enough Black Angus Burgers to support him or herself.
We stopped for gas in Valentine, NE where Fort Niobrara once stood. The Fort has been converted into a National Wildlife Refuge. While Denise went inside to use the restroom, Catherine waited in the car, looking at this sign in the window.
She spent a few minutes thinking about some nice leche -- a Mexican milk drink. The sign, in fact, reads "Leeches Sold Here" -- that is, fish bait. In any case, Denise returned with a map and news that the locals say the Fort is a buffalo pasture and worth the (free) visit. At that price and less than 7 miles away, who can resist?
The Wildlife refuge did not disappoint. As we drove in we noted buffaloes with calves along the side of the road. With a tip from the visitor center, we headed to the favored elk pasture land.
The spots in the picture are elk with a rather picturesque backdrop. Catherine attempted long range photography by lining the camera up with binoculars -- the results aren't great... but at least the spots do look more elk-like.
They were all scruffy because they are still shedding their winter coats and haven't even dropped calves yet (the first one was born the day before we got there, but we didn't see him). They may have been a bit pre-mature dropping their coats. While the thermometer in the car hit 100 yesterday, it barely made it to 60 today. In June.
About 5 minutes later, we found the bigger bison herd. It turns out molting bison aren't terribly attractive and even the babies didn't help their cause.
The highlight of the park is the Prairie Dog Town. Black Tailed Prairie Dogs may be one of the cutest animals in existence. Not only do they pick grass in their hands to eat it (like squirrels), it's now time that the half grown babies come out and play. They chase each other with their little tails flitting around and can jump straight up. Then they maul their mothers (poor moms) in order to beg for food which seems to be partially chewed grass. Even the adults exchange friendly kisses for greetings. Unfortunately, the little buggers are hard to photograph. Here's one adult female.
We spotted Barn Swallows, Mourning Doves, Eastern Kingbirds, Mountain Bluebirds, Grasshopper Sparrows, Lark Sparrows, Horned Larks, Upland Sandpipers and Western Meadow Larks near the Prairie Dogs.
After dragging ourselves away from the Prairie Dogs, we headed down towards Fort Falls. The journey was interrupted by a Ring Necked Pheasant crossing the road. It's amazing how well a bird that big and brightly colored can disappear into grass. The "hike" to the falls is about 2 miles including a nature trail. The falls are quite lovely.
The stream feeds into Niabrara River (frequently canoed or kayaked) which was high and flowing fast.
Although there were a lot of chirping trees, the only birds we positively identified were a House Wren, a Northern Rough-winged Swallow and a Spotted Towhee.
We drove out of the park towards Smith Falls State Park a few miles away. Along the way a White Tailed Jack Rabbit hopped along the road. We saw a flock of turkeys -- quite different from the turkeys in our backyard. These had a lot of white on their backs and tails. Don't know which subspecies got stocked here, but we saw several flocks throughout the day, so we guess they are doing well. We also found deer and even a 2 spotted fawns (a little one and a much bigger one).
In addition to a pretty waterfall that is the largest in the state of NE and runs year round because it is aquifer fed,
Denise lead the bushwacking expedition through the not-so-recently cut grass. She was concerned about ticks.
The bushwacking was successful. No ticks were discovered, but we saw Yellow Warblers, Least Fly Catchers, Orchard Orioles, White Breasted Nuthatches and Warbling Vieros.
This area of NE is quite diverse including prairie, oak forests, paper birch, pines and other species. It's evident that the landscape is changing -- the overlooks have a decidedly "Western" feel. The rivers now cut gorges and the hills are steeper.
The locals laughed as Denise took pictures of City Hall and the Bank (shown below) in Valentine. The relief was added to the bank in 1992 by the private donation of a family.
We finally headed out of Valentine (North on 83).
Another western characteristic showed itself. Long, straight, boring roads.
We went through the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation at the border with South Dakota. Except for a relatively small casino and a bit of multi-colored government housing, the area was similar to Nebraska. Lots of cows and cow pastures. The farm houses seemed slightly less prosperous and some had junk around them, but the towns were more reminiscent of the poverty seen in the Reservations in New Mexico and Arizona.
We finally turned onto 44 which leads to within a mile of two of the Badlands. This road is remarkable for a number of reasons. First, we saw the first chicken or hog houses we've seen the entire trip. Just one bank of them. Second, we were finally in areas where you can pull over to the side of the road and no one will look twice. Third, there were White Pelicans flying overhead. Yes, Pelicans. Yes, we pulled over for a better look. Finally, traffic hazards included turkeys, tractors, "wide load" farm equipment that took up both lanes (we got to move to the shoulder/grass), and random people stopped in the road.
The views of the Badlands were spectacular in the cloudy skies.
Because the forecast says rain for tomorrow, and badlands dirt is supposed to swell 20x and become extremely slippery, we decided to make the few short recommended hikes evening hikes. We attempted one trail called "the Notch" defined as not for those afraid of heights. Hmmm...
The view walking in was gorgeous. Then we got to the rope ladder which we successfully negotiated.
The badlands are made of kind of a white clay. Many of the walls will crumbled when you grab onto them. It is a bit unnerving to walk along the edge of these crumbling cliffs. Denise made it most of the way and then lost her nerve. She headed back down -- here are pictures of Catherine and Denise looking at each other from Denise's turn around point.
But, Catherine did have to go the last 0.2 miles or so. The view as rather disappointing. But on the way back, she did take a much better shot of the badlands.
While Catherine backed down the top section of the ladder, Denise kept taking pictures of her (not posted here). Catherine finally turned around so she could have some postable pictures.
We headed back to the Door trail. It starts on a boardwalk and then winds through some of the roughest of the Badlands. All along these walks, Rock Wrens played (both on the man-made structures and in their native habitat), Mountain Bluebirds hunted bugs (they are bright blue and striking against the light rocks), and Least Chipmunks scampered around. Thankfully, though chipmunk identification is usually impossible (as in Catherine doesn't feel like should identify one if he were stuffed and in front of her), there is only one species of chipmunk that has a light gray form -- he blends in with the rocks -- and only one found in this area.
Even on the Boardwalk, there are interesting table formations (maybe the grass provides erosion-stability?)
We found a Desert Cottontail with the same sense as Dumb Bun (the driveway cottontail that sometimes requires you to get out of the car and shoo him out of the road).
Out on the Badlands, we rapidly got a sense of why people think they are bad lands. They are hard to walk on and have unpredictable gullies.
We ended the night looking at sunset -- not as spectacular as we had heard, but still pretty nice.
The wildflowers were prettier than the sunset.
And two tired folks headed to bed, with this view.
Tomorrow should be an easier day -- it's supposed to rain. Maybe we can sleep in :-).
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