Buried Bison are Better than Buried Brontosaurs

Nebraska! Home of the… uh… ‘Huskers? And longest stretch of straight highway in the U.S.

We saw neither of these. Western Nebraska is where it’s at.  Growing up in Colorado, you’d think I would know a bit more about the Sandy Hills, but they were a fun surprise for both of us!

We started at Scottsbluff, which has quite a bit of history around the Oregon Trail. The bluff was the first major landmark after the great planes that wagons saw. Being sort of modern-day wagon travelers, we could see the appeal.

We also visited Chimney Rock, which is a tall pillar that’s eroding before our eyes. If you follow the arrow, you can (theoretically) see it in the distance:

Next up was Agate fossil beds. This is unearthed dinosaur remains that the National Park service studies. The info was pretty good, but didn’t snap any pics of the hills as it was a bit underwhelming.

We figured we’d stop by Toadstool Geological area for a quick hike. This tuned out to be an all day adventure. We chose an out-and-back to a point on the map called Hudson-Meng Bison Kill center and it tuned out to be a sweet  dig site. Hundreds of bones and a great display showing all of the theories to how they got there was really cool to visit.

And some pics of the grasslands hike itself:

Quite the formations! Nebraska is a place I could see living, which I’d never thought I’d say.