Smith Falls State Park

Our first stop today was to visit the Smith Falls State Park and especially Smith Falls.  This park is 18 miles east of Valentine, Nebraska on Highway 12.  This park is the newest State Park in Nebraska and the park itself is absolutely worth seeing.  I'd love to bring family here some time and float down the Niobrara River as we saw many families doing today.  There is just enough current to keep you moving and there are very few places that are very deep.  Most of the time you can stand up and be in less than knee deep water - sometimes ankle deep!  There is one hangup, however, and that is the road coming into the park.

When we turned off the highway, we turned on to a nice black topped road as you might expect.  It quickly turned into the worst road we traveled in years.  It was like driving on a five mile washboard of considerable size.  We were forced to drive 5 MPH to maintain control of the vehicle.  And, once we were on this road, there was no where to turn around!  We found out later that the State only rents the land for this state park and that may have something to do with it.  I can't imagine being a worker in this park and inflicting the kind of damage that this would do to any vehicle's front end.  We certainly hope that the State of Nebraska takes care of this quickly.  We watched an almost new Motor Home drive in and the man did not look at all happy.  He was probably camping in the area.  That must have been some drive!!

This sign lets you know that you are headed the right way on the hike to the falls.  You start at the Visitor Center and then walk down a bunch of stairs to another level of the park.  From there you keep walking.

Verdigris Bridge

We crossed over a historic bridge that was moved here to span the Niobrara River and provide more convenient public access to Smith Falls.

As we walked toward the falls we came to another wooden staircase and started to follow it up the hill.  We went by this little falls on the way.

First sight of some falls but this isn't it.

 

The boardway went on for quite awhile.   

Nice walkway to the falls

Smith Falls

Children playing beneath the falls

Standing here on the boardwalk near the falls was like going into an air-conditioned room.  We didn't want to leave!

Standing on the historic bridge on the way back, it was fun seeing all the people who were tubing down the river.  It was sure a good day for it as the temperatures got into the 90's today.  We were here in the morning so it wasn't too bad yet.  It got much worse as the day progressed.

Fishberry RV Park and Campground

We pulled into the Fishberry RV Park and Campground near Valentine, Nebraska for a few days.  We love it when we can find a place with full hookups and Wifi.  The only problem here is that we can't get any TV stations.  We are in the boonies!!  However, when we pulled up to our site I had to drag my camera out.  The lighting was just right.  The skies were the bluest blue and the sun was lighting up the clouds over the fields.  It was just beautiful.  Of course, the serenity only lasted a few minutes.  We had to get setup after that!

The view from our fifth wheel.  Gorgeous!

Ashall Fossil Beds - a National Natural Landmark

Today we headed out to see Ashfall Fossil Beds near Royal, Nebraska.  We had visited the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, South Dakota and really enjoyed it so we thought we would check this site out.  What we decided is that if we had to visit just one of these, we would go for the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs just because it has been in existence a lot longer so there has been more progress digging fossils.  There was just more to see there.  

The following is an excerpt from the website for the Ashfall Fossil Beds:

"About 12 million years ago, a volcano in southwest Idaho spread a blanket of ash over a very large area. One or two feet of this powdered glass covered the flat savannah-like grasslands of northeastern Nebraska. The volcanic eruption was 200 times the ashfall from Mount St. Helen's. It would take a pickup truck 165,000 trips to empty all of the ash from the park alone. 

Most of the animals which lived here survived the actual ash fall, but as they continued to graze on the ash covered grasses, their lungs began to fill up with the abrasive powder. Soon their lungs became severely damaged and they began to die.

Undisturbed except by an occasional scavenging meat-eater, the skeletons of these animals are preserved in their death positions, complete with evidence of their last meals in their mouths and stomachs and their last steps preserved in the sandstone below."

 The Visitor Center

 The Rhino Barn

This shows why the barn was placed where it is to protect the diggings - unfortunately, it isn't air conditioned!

 
They have worked on this fossil for several weeks and have several weeks to go yet. It is very time consuming and delicate work 

From what I can tell, Nessie could be a reality! Check this out:

 Here are her neck bones

 More relics from the sea

                                     The watering hole
 

 With a blast that was many many times larger than when Mount St Helen blew 

 This is some of the ash beds that are outside  

 The first one they dug is is in the distance 

 Here are the trenches inside the Rhino barn  

 Some workers seeing what they can uncover

Here are some pictures of animals that are now extinct!

 More ash beds outside the barn with some fossils found

                              A live critter among the fossils!

For more information on the Ashfall Fossil Site, click on this link:
http://ashfall.unl.edu/