Woke up this morning before five and was on the road by 7. The drive was magnificent. I took 80 West to 26 to Scottsbluff. The drive on Highway 26 is well worth it; many odd rock formations and something new around every bend. There were plenty of historical markers and places to stop and enjoy the view.

I've wanted to see Chimney Rock since I was a kid, and finally made that a reality:



I could see it from maybe 20 miles away--not sure--but my efforts to snap it from the road didn't work since I had to avoid hitting a semi. I pulled over at every historical marker I could. I did stop at the Chimney Rock Visitor Center; they had a nice film but otherwise not much going on.

After that I went to Scottsbluff National Monument, where I spent a couple of hours. First, I have to say the weather here is absolutely horrible today, but exhilarating at the same time. The wind has been deadly and I had to wear three layers (including my Michigan Archives hoodie) to survive it, and even then it simply cut through me. Because it is the off-season, and because of the weather, nobody else was there. Scottsbluff offers a small museum that hasn't been updated for years. However, they had a local art show featuring watercolors and other artwork related to the area. Some of them were actually quite good.

Scottsbluff is pretty impressive:



Someday Scottsbluff will be completely eroded and will be at the same level as the rest of the plains. I walked along a short trail that paralleled the Oregon Trail and had some stunning views. Mitchell Pass provided a way for pioneers to shorten their journey west by cutting through Scottsbluff instead of taking a long way around.



This one shows the drive up including two of the three tunnels:


I drove up to Scottsbluff and had the entire place to myself once again. There were two paths to take, both with amazing views:





The wind was brutal up here. Just brutal. I got knocked around quite a bit. Well worth it though, so far the highlight of my trip, I would reckon.

I checked out the local museum, the North Platte Valley Museum. There is something to be said for local history museums that are run mostly by volunteers. They had some cool stuff though it was arranged randomly. Especially cool were a bunch of maps of Nebraska over the years.

Then I got my warning for running a stop sign mentioned last post. I was listening to Bruce Springsteen's album Nebraska, which includes the song "State Trooper", so I guess it was bound to happen. Incidentally, if you get a chance, see the movie Badlands. Directed by Terence Malick and starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, it's a retelling of the Starkweather-Fugate killing spree in the Dakotas. It inspired two Springsteen songs, "Badlands" and "Nebraska".

It was getting late in the afternoon but I drove all over Gering and Scottsbluff to get a better feel for the towns. Ok, I got lost. I did have steak for dinner, so yeah! Very tired.

Tomorrow I'm still planning on driving to Casper and hopefully seeing Ft. Laramie. No one seems concerned about the weather so I guess I won't be either until I'm actually driving in it.

You can see all the pictures below. They get kind of repetitive, but there are some pretty good ones in there. And none of them do the area justice.

Nebraska