Flies, fly traps, flat tires, ancient beavers and the Oregon Trail

It was hard leaving my sister,  but we knew they would be joining us in a few weeks in Stehekin on Lake Chelan in Washington, so that helped.

Our next stop was Minatare Lake, just outside Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Our campsite, on Lake Minatare, was at a state recreation area.  There were lots of big old cottonwood trees that provided shade. Cottonwood are interesting trees, deep furrowed bark and silver colored leaves. It was quite attractive. There was one problem. FLIES. There were tons of them and they were everywhere. Ugh.

We had fly swatters, but that wasn't nearly enough ammunition for the battle at hand. So Martin went on an expedition and came back with fly traps. Again, who knew there even was such a thing???  Japanese beetle traps, yes, but regular old house flies??? We put one up on one of the old cottonwood trees and it made it better, tolerable at least. I learn something new everyday. 

And … while we're discussing "problems" … let's just say we were very fortunate to be in a place that dealt with tires and repairs. We had a flat on the trailer, really in the middle of nowheresville, on the way to Scottsbluff. 

Yep, that tire is toast.

We decided to be proactive and replace two tires when we arrived.  But that's not all, oh no. When we went back to pick up the trailer, we noticed this weird feeling and noise with the jeep. The guy came out, took one look and said two of our bolts (the things the lug nuts go on) were sheared completely off. 😳😱 Uhm, excuse me? The things holding our tire on have sheared off???

They were able to fix it, we just had a little delay which resulted in a night in a hotel. All's well that ends well😁

Scottsbluff, the town, is named after Scott's Bluff, a rather unique rock formation that acted as a landmark, signpost and entrance to passage through questionable terrain that had been used by Native Americans and was used by the pioneers heading westward on the Oregon Trail. (It also happens to be named after a man named Scott, tee-hee.)  It is a National Monument and has very active interpretive rangers on staff.  We looked at the moon through a telescope, checked out an art exhibit, tried our luck at identifying local trees and plants and they even had a ranger dressed in appropriate clothing down by a wagon explaining life on the wagon train and the hopes and dreams of the pioneers. It's a small station and we were only there a couple of hours, but geez, they really packed a lot in! So if you're anywhere nearby, stop by and check them out. Of course, they do have signs saying "Beware of Rattlesnakes". 😱 Apparently they have prairie rattlesnakes and when I asked the ranger how frequent they were, I was expecting, "Oh, not common" or "Pretty rare", instead I got a  very nonchalant "We see them nearly every day".  YIKES 😳😳😳 I have to admit I was very mindful and a bit nervous hiking about.

We also drove out to Chimney Rock while we were there. It's another landmark that travelers on the Oregon Trail (OT) would talk about and you can read about in their diaries.

The more I started to learn about the Oregon Trail the more interested I became. In reality, I knew very little prior to coming out here. I learned something about it in school, prairies and pioneers, harrowing times and hard work, death and dying. And the boys had a computer game called the Oregon Trail, but really I didn't know much. We had no family, that I was ever aware of, that migrated west. The tv shows I watched growing up were probably my greatest "educational" source. (I know, I know, scary.)

But now I could really see where they had been and not only that, but I could walk where they walked, along that very trail. In my moderate dive into the OT, I learned that there were places you could go and see remains of the actual trail cut through the prairie and the limestone. There were places you could go and see where these settlers, these pioneers carved their names, dates, some even where they were from on limestone cliffs. I was quite inspired by this history so we took a little side trip to Guernsey, WY to see Register Wall and the Guernsey Ruts. I was awed as I stood in the ruts and looked at the names carved into the "wall". What dreams and inspirations drove these people to suffer those hardships? The majority walked 18 to 20 miles a day (a day!) on a journey that would last approximately 6 months. (I think I'm doing really well if I walk 3 or 4 miles a day!)  The Trail is marked by bodies buried along it, the majority of which died from disease. True pioneers.

Alright, we've covered flies, fly traps, flat tires and the OT, but where oh where are the ancient beavers you ask? Not a single mention and I know you are dying to see what they have to do with any of this.  Well, as we left Scottsbluff, with our shiny new tires and wheel bolts, traveling to the Badlands NP, we went by Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Sioux county Nebraska.  The topography is slightly rolling with some rock outcroppings. In and amongst these hills and rock outcroppings they've discovered many fossils from the Miocene age.

Some of the most noticeable were these spiral corkscrews which turned out to be the burrows of a beaver-like animal from the miocene era (10 - 25 million years ago) For you non-anthropologists, that's after dinosaurs but still a really long time ago! The beaver is called a paleocaster, just one of the many strange mammals from that time period. This monument also had a great exhibit from local Native Americans and featured some interesting prairie hiking.

Our campsite among the cottonwoods on Lake Minatare 

I do love a sunset … and they are beautiful everywhere

The lighthouse on Lake Minatare 

Scott's Bluff

The Oregon Trail hiking trail through Scott's Bluff 

A display of some of the wagon types used by the pioneers on the trail.

Not a lot of space for all your worldly goods for you and your family to start a new life.

Images, the prairie may not have been as inhospitable as the mountains, but it still presented plenty of dangers…and beauty.

Hiking around the top of Scott's Bluff 

A train, down along the North Platte River, as seen from the top of Scott's Bluff. 

Ok, one more view. It is pretty spectacular, rising out of the prairie like that.

Now on to Chimney Rock. The pioneers would see this from far away and know they were getting close to the mountains. This was an important landmark.

Our side trip out to Guernsey, Wyoming

Register Cliff

And the Guernsey Ruts …

Can you imagine the number of wagons that went over that rock to create this?  I'm not sure which would be harder, first or last.

Some parting shots of Scottsbluff, the town. I'm always fascinated by these giant solos next to the railroads.  I find them visually fascinating.

What could the meaning of this formation in amongst the rolling prairie landscape be?

…or these weird formations in this rock cliff??

Aha! We are at Agate Fossils Beds Monument and these are daemonelix, the ancient beavers spiral homes.

There is also a nice display of the Plains Native American history and artifacts.

At the visitor center they displayed a winter count which tells the history of a tribe in pictographs. They start from the beginning of creation at the center and work their way outward in a spiral.

This is a closeup of the year showing the tribe getting measles 

and this, the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.

A Dragonfly on the Niobrara River.

So I thought these were dragonflies, but they appear to have opaque wings, sooo your guess is as good as mine???

the prairie 

Our next stop is Badlands NP, South Dakota. I have fond memories from there when we did our cross country trip with the boys and am looking forward to spending time there again. ❤️