Scotts Bluff (a trip to Nebraska, pt 2)

Ah where were we?

Driving through the wilds of western Nebraska. As I drove, I mused on the landscape. At this stage it was all looooong rolling hills. Imagine being a pioneering (white) family and having oxen pull your wagon over the vast prairie and then getting the wagon over the occasional little creek. I don't know how gullied the landscape was when it was true prairie but there are a few gullies now. They would've been pretty tricky to navigate.

The land itself looks rather barren at this time of the year. Anywhere that isn't irrigated (which is most places now as it is November and snow is expected anytime) was a soft grey/beige/green stubble. I have no idea what most of the land is used for but it has fences so its used for something - cattle mebbe? - and some is ploughed, and I'm guessing some has winter wheat on it just waiting to be covered by the winter snows. It looks like land that is asleep and waiting for the days to start getting longer and spring to come.


Suddenly the landscape changes. Instead of long rolling hills, you discover scarps and pointy mesa type hills and the landscape becomes somewhat more exciting.



Wildcat Hills open up on the long prairie beyond. The far west of Nebraska seems to pocked with the remnants of a plateau. The plateau is only sandstone, soft sandstone, and is eroding away. Scotts Bluff and Wildcat Hills are an edge of that disappearing plateau.

Finally I reached Scotts Bluff. It was not my actual destination - a woollen mill was, but as it turned out Scotts Bluff was *much* more interesting!

I had plenty of time to ponder the bluff and Mitchell Pass as there were roadworks happening.


How would you like to be this guy, standing out in the occasionally bitter wind holding a STOP or SLOW sign? Nice view, though. (taken from the north, coming back from Brown Sheep Mill)

I only twigged that there was something special about the bluff when I saw a sign like this:

Like DUH!

Ah. That would be *the* Oregon Trail then. The one that all those nutty, hopeful, nothing to lose and land/livelihood to gain people dragged their families across America on. In this age of cars, trains and aeroplanes, I cannot imagine how it must've been to hitch some oxen up to a wagon or two and take *everything* you had on a trip across the prairie and the mountains (cos I have been across those mountains and they are rather large!).


(Eagle Rock and wagon)

See? They even have an old wagon or two, minus the covers at this time of year, at the national monument. Guess they don't want them blowing away.... The wagons were *very* narrow - about a metre or about 4' wide at their widest point and maybe 2.5m/8' long. That amazed me. I don't know how those poor women survived having everything they needed in the way of provisions, clothing and basics in that small space. The wagon in the pic is a larger freight wagon. It still is not bigger than a family sized car say a Camry or something like that. You can read more about the history of Scotts Bluff on this NPS page.

Here's some pics of Mitchell Pass, Eagle Rock and some extras. I rather liked this place despite the bleakness of the badlands and of the season.







Just you wait - Even More Pics next time! Still of Scotts Bluff and views from the top! It is quite speccy.