On top of the world (a trip to Nebraska, part 3)

Heh, that isn't the sort of title one expects for Nebraska, is it?

The ranger at Scotts Bluff kindly let me go up the top - you can drive right up to the top on a made road through tunnels and all - even though it was pretty much closing time. I guess he figured someone who was from Australia and had driven specifically to go to a woollen mill (his mum knits so when he was posted there she was delighted) ought to see the local sights.

My goodness what a lot of sights. I'll let them speak for themselves.





(Saddle Rock)











As I scuttled around the various short walks on the top of the Bluff oohing and aaahing at the sights I noticed LOTS of bunnies that are almost perfectly coloured to blend into the landscape

and even more trains! Our camera doesn't have a big zoom (heck it is a 4megapixel beast that has now taken 10,000 pics in exactly 11 months) so I don't have pics to share of the trains cos they are like dirty lines with bright dots for lights at the front. It turns out that Scotts Bluff (the town) is on the main east west line so that would be why there were trains about 5 miles (if that) apart on it going in either direction. I was mighty impressed by the number of trains I could see. I would've seen more if I had dropped a quarter or two into the viewing binoculars.

I noticed some sunsetty colours appearing


and thought I had best drive back down the bluff so's I could check out the stuff outside the gates, like the Oregon Trail itself. Alas, not much to see of the trail as it has eroded a LOT - heck you can see how much the sandstone bluff itself has eroded in less than a hundred years - that survey post was level with the rock:

so all the wheel ruts are gone. Still I trotted along a trail that has a lot of history, even if that history is not mine.


Dome rock from the Oregon Trail, and some more :-) These views really made me feel like I was in the Wild West somewhere but this wasn't really wild, not like some of the places we've been. Very cool though.





The sunset light was full on Saddle Rock - how pretty! Like Uluru but not.


And the skies lit up gently over the prairie


(Next, the journey home - sunset over the prairie)