Toadstools and Footprints

In the far northwest corner of Nebraska, in Oglala National Grassland, lies Toadstool Geological Park.

The stark landscape is the remains of an ancient shallow river which, 30 million years ago, supported miniature horses, humpless camels, gigantic tortoises, pigs, and rhinoceroses.

The 'toadstools' were created by wind and water which eroded the soft clay faster than the sandstone rock on top.

There is a poorly marked 1-mile trail that enabled us to roam among the interesting formations.

Now we have seen places like this before, most notably Goblin Valley in Utah and Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico, both of which I loved.  But Toadstool Geologic Park had something that they lacked - fossils!

According to the trail guide, we should have seen bones in the rocks.  Well, either we just don't know what we're looking at, or we weren't looking in the right place.  But we couldn't miss the footprints!

These were made by the rhinoceros of the time, the Subhyracodon.  Here's a closeup.  I wished I had a whisk broom to sweep out the sand.

Across the way was a slipped cap rock with prints from an ancient migration.

It's fascinating to think of the mammals that roamed here 30 million years ago.

The other thing that really made our day was this sighting of an owl in a tree right along the road.  Not the best picture, but you can see his inner eyelids.

Back to Nebraska

Although I rejoined Ron in Denver area after my flight to Jacksonville, I have to backtrack verbally and finish our adventures in Nebraska.  So here goes.

U.S. 20 across northwest Nebraska is called the Bridges to Buttes highway.  We must have missed the bridges, but once we hit the western part of the state, we sure saw the buttes.

We stayed a couple nights at another nice city park in Crawford.  One day we took a driving tour, following suggested routes from the visitors center.  It was very scenic, although the road was interesting in some places . . .

And just plain scary in others.  Along one stretch, I was sure we were going to get stuck in the mud.  Front wheel drive is not always enough.  But Ron didn't panic and after a bit of spinning, the wheels did grab.  All his years of driving in Colorado snow paid off.

We stopped to see the Belmont Tunnel, Nebraska's only railroad tunnel.  Built in 1888, it was bypassed by an open cut in 1982.  Here's the current route.

And after a short walk, we found the old tunnel.

Here's what we wondered.  As you can see, the tunnel is pretty short.  After cutting through the hill for approximately 1/4 mile, why did they make a tunnel instead of continuing to cut?  Seems like it would be a lot easier.

Sad News

I still have a couple of posts for Nebraska, but I'm going to skip ahead a bit.  While there, I was notified that my 90 year old Aunt Mimi had broken her hip.  Six months ago, my daughters and I had moved her into a Memory Care facility near them in Jacksonville, Florida.  So I hurried to Denver to catch a flight to Florida.

During the hip operation, it seems she suffered a stroke and only lasted a short time before leaving us with only our memories.  But what memories they are!  She was married to the perfect man for 60-some years and they lived life to the fullest.

She was gorgeous and I'm sure she had her pick of suitors.  She had very entertaining stories.  This is my favorite.  Before she met my uncle, she was going with another gentleman whom she liked a lot. However, she couldn't put up with his controlling mother.  So she broke up with him and declared that she was going to find a man who didn't have a mother!  Luckily, my uncle was an orphan.

Aunt Mimi and Uncle Clarence were very elegant.  During their working careers, they lived in the Washington, D.C. area and were very socially active.

Even later in life, she retained that elegance although her health declined after the death of her husband in 2010 and the discovery of an inoperable brain tumor around the same time.

Although we will miss her, we are comforted that she had a long and wonderful life.

While I was in Jacksonville, I enjoyed spending time with my daughters and son-in-law.  One day, the girls took me to the beach where they demonstrated their abilities with boogie boards.  I was amazed at the size of the waves.

But first they set up their pasty-white mother in comfort and with sun protection.

Museum of the Fur Trade

The Museum of the Fur Trade outside of Chadron, NE, was truly a 'gem' as designated in the AAA book.  Pictures were pretty impossible, but from the informative video to the displays, the story of fur trading in North America was well documented.

You'll have to go to get the whole story and see all the traded items, but one of my favorite displays was the beautiful beaded clothing.  I finally decided to try a picture with my phone in the low light.

My other favorite was was a collection of  'canoe cups' used by the French Canadian trappers.

Here's the story.

Ron was impressed by the massive collection of flintlocks.

On the grounds was a meticulous reproduction of the trading post originally built on this site in 1837. It was operated by Jim Bordeaux, a Frenchman from Missouri, who was known as 'The Bear' by the local Sioux Indians.  He must have been quite a man.  There was a story that the Sioux saved him and his family from a band of marauding Crows.

Back across Nebraska

We're really going crazy with this traveling the back roads.  We're crossing Nebraska along the far northern route, within spittin' distance of South Dakota.  Love the state road signs.

Our first stop was at a Corps of Engineer park near Yankton.  Even though it was a weekend, we found a spot at Tailwaters campground below the Gavins Point Dam.  Above the dam is beautiful Lewis and Clark Lake and below the dam, the Missouri River flows free for numerous miles.  (I can't remember how many miles, but I think it was about 70.  What a kayak trip that would be.)

We had a bit of an upset at our next stop.  On our way across the country, we have used my favorite app, Allstays, to find city, county, state, and COE parks.  But at Fort Randell Dam, just over the state line in South Dakota, Allstays had North Point Recreation Area listed as a COE park  In fact, it had been turned over to South Dakota State Parks.  Since South Dakota has a day use fee in addition to their camping fees, I thought we were really going to pay dearly for our night's stay.  For some reason, they didn't charge us the day use fee, but it was still a bit much at $20.

Perhaps that's why the campground was like a ghost town.  We had to laugh when another RV pulled in right next to us with about a hundred empty sites.  It was okay, though, they didn't have a campfire.

We did love the cute rental cabins with views of the Missouri River and the chalkstone cliffs.

Nearby is the site of 1856 Fort Randall.  In 1875, this combination church, Odd Fellows lodge, and library was built with all volunteer labor.  It's the only building still (partially) standing with the help of the protective roof.

Our next stop was the cute town of Valentine, Nebraska.

I loved this building.  I don't know how they built a brick building with 3-D accents, but it was very cool.

Allstays redeemed itself by leading us to the Valentine city park with $5 overnight camping right along the water.  (No hookups, of course.)

Nearby is Smith Falls, the highest waterfall in Nebraska at a whopping 63 feet!  It's pretty though.

Orange City

Our last stop in Iowa was unique Orange City, a little bit of Holland in Northwest Iowa.  Orange City was settled in 1870 and named after Prince William of Orange, a prominent royal figure in the Netherlands in the 17th century.  So, no oranges here.

They have the cutest Chamber of Commerce I've ever seen.

The impressive courthouse was built of Sioux Quartzsite.

The storefronts are built with colorful gables.

Here's something you don't see every day - a windmill phone booth.

Of course they have an annual tulip festival in May, but we had to settle for this giant mural.

In Windmill Park, we admired the display of six scale models of historic Dutch windmills.  Rod Shea of Middleburg, Wisconsin, researched and built the units, then donated them to Orange City in 2006.

As you can see, we are really living up to our blog's name.

Pause

We interrupt our regularly scheduled travel posts to interject some cuteness.  Last Monday, Labor Day (how appropriate), Ron's daughter Kelli, son-in-law Sean, and grandson Harper welcomed a precious addition to their family.

Little Elsie was 2 1/2 weeks early, but she's doing fine and went home with her mother.

The other family member, Lucy, is staying close and taking her guard dog duties seriously.

Not to be outdone, Harper is caring for his own 'Elsie' and 'Lucy'.

And on the off chance that somebody doesn't read my sister Diana's blog, my nephew Mark and wife Carisa welcomed their own little miracle a few months ago.  Here's little Asha at four months.

It just doesn't get any better.