The plan was to leave at 2am or earlier, but since I couldn’t sleep I decided to leave at 9pm. I thought that maybe I could drive a few hours then sleep at a truck stop somewhere on the way.
The drive through eastern Colorado at night is bland. Google maps seemed to think I should take highway 71 past La Junta…so I did! I supposed that perhaps I might miss the Denver rush hour traffic. It took what seemed like ages, but I finally made it to La Junta (technically I was a bit west). From there I had about 4 more hours of driving until I hit the border of Nebraska, but before that was the gas station where I’d have a power nap.
Just before I hit the rest stop at about 2:40am I got stopped at railroad crossing for a passing freight train. No big deal until it stopped dead in its tracks. I was furious! Whyyyyyy?! About 45 seconds later it started up again, but wait! Just as it got 3/4 of the way across, a second train started crossing and then did the same stop halfway thing. Really annoying, but what I couldn’t see was that there were actually 3 tracks in a row. Luckily I only had to wait for 2 trains! Right after that I reached the truck stop and being unable to sleep I grabbed some more Redbull and continued on my way.
I had been wanting to come to Nebraska for ages. See on the Rushmore trip Ethan and I hit a few national parks in western Nebraska. I thought we got them all for the longest time, but I missed one: Agate Fossil Beds National Monument! You know what that means! I had to come back.
Basically the route was go all the way through boring eastern Colorado then go north at North Platte, NE. It wasn’t that hard! I must’ve not been paying much attention to the Official Plan because I thought that day 1 was only 600 miles of driving total. I was already at 500 ish by the time I hit North Platte. Woah, it was going to be a long day.
It was really tough to find anything to do in Nebraska! The first destination was the Scott Lookout Tower, which is about halfway between North Platte and Valentine. It is an old 1980’s era fire tower in the middle of the Nebraska National Forest. I was going to go to the top of a rather steep looking staircase when I noticed the humming. Right under the deck of the top of the tower there were 3-4 bees. I couldn’t tell if they were wasps or carpenter bees (I was too far away), but either way I decided to not go to the top.
Next up was the Niobara National Scenic River in Valentine. I was expecting just the visitors center since I didn’t have an inner tube, kayak, or canoe to cruise the river on. What I didn’t realize was that there is actually a whole tourism thing going on with the river. Back in the day the local ranchers used to build some pretty sketchy contraptions such as a tractor tire with ply board, a lawn chair, and a cooler (for beer) and sail down the river. Pretty soon they started charging people for adventures and now many years later there is a full fledged river tube ride service run by different companies. If I had done more research I could’ve rented one!
The one thing that the park ranger mentioned was to go visit the Smith Falls waterfall. It is the tallest waterfall in Nebraska. You can also cool off under the falls! I had my bathing suit with me, but by this point I was starting to think about the final destination of the day: the campsite, still a few hundred miles away sadly. The temperature difference once at the falls was kind of insane. In the parking lot it was 104F…about 20ft from the waterfall it was 55F!
The person at the Smith Falls State Park suggested a restaurant in Rushville called the Twisted Turtle Pub. When I got there I found out it was closed on Tuesdays. Darn! I decided to just head to the campsite. Maybe I’d find something on the way?
It turns out that there was a neat local pizza place on the way called Village Pizza in Hemingford. There was not a lot happening inside. The pepperoni pizza and cheesy bread I got were both delicious. While inside I asked the locals if the dirt road to the Agate Fossil Beds was in decent condition or was it too risky of a drive. According to google maps satellite view it was in decent condition, but it’s hard to tell the final outcome based on a sort of reliable picture. It was a 22 mile dirt farming road. You would save about 115 miles of driving. Worth it?
Eventually I decided to go for it since I was way over the estimated milage and I was getting tired. The road started out ok and I could safely go about 40 mph. That quickly changed about 12 miles in when the road changed to washboard and sand. My car can’t drive in sand. Luckily it was just the top layer and not sandy like a beach, so with concentration and precision I avoided disaster. The washboard effects were unavoidable. If I went 40 on it I’d – at the very least – need a wheel alignment and worse case scenario destroy my suspension. I played it safe by going 5-10mph. I did see a few house sized tractors on the way. Overall, I’d recommend the long way! This shortcut is not worth it.
After what felt like an eternity I reached the campsite. The campsite was $10 and you had to put the money in a secure mailbox. Respect the honor system! There was no one there so I was going to camp in the middle on one of the RV spots. I was a bit wary of rain turning the grass into mud and me getting stuck. The gravel felt safer, plus I could always move if an RV came. I tried to set up my tent, but the 11 mph winds (with 30mph gusts) proved more than a match for me and I quickly stuffed everything back into my trunk. Maybe I could just sleep in my car? After about an hour of overheating I decided that I couldn’t sleep in my car. I tried opening the windows for air circulation but then it started raining so I had to close them. Closed car windows = 100F car interior. Eventually I decided on an emergency change of plans. It was frustrating because this campsite was literally 1 mile way from the national monument. GRRRRR
The Hilton in Scottsbluff saved the day in the end. The extra 50 miles to get there made the day driving total 950 miles. So much for the 600 mile estimate! (It turns out that it was actually more like a 800mi estimate, I somehow missed that part.)
Day 2
I woke up bright and early to drive back north to the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. It should be of note that for the 35 miles between Mitchell and Agate there are no gas stations, so make sure you plan accordingly for that. Once there I headed to the visitors center. I didn’t have a ton of time to burn here so I watched the short film and proceeded to the Daemonelix Trail.
A Daemonelix is a tunnel fossil made by ancient creatures called Palaeocasters. Basically they are 19 million year old beavers. The tunnel is a spiral shape and sometimes it can have 2 passages at the bottom instead of one. There was an example of each on the trail. At the Daemonelix site I met 2 wonderful people by the names of Jeanne and Noah. They were on a road trip from California and had a close friend at Philmont named Tom (omitting last names so I don’t dox). I promised I’d find him and say that Jeanne and Noah said hello. The next day at Camping Headquarters (CHQ) dining hall I met him in the staff dining hall! Always super cool to meet friendly people!
Not long after that I was in my car on my way back to Philmont. You see, I was still about 8 hours away so I needed to get a move on fast if I wanted to get back the same day. Before really putting on my game face I went to a small bar by the name of The Emporium at Hawk Springs, Wyoming. The burger I had was fantastic and the corona was delicious too. The baristas were all really nice locals and I met another guy at the bar who lived nearby. Since I was driving nearly 500 more miles I only had 1 beer. With not much else to do in the population of 45 at Hawk Springs, I hit the road.
Next up was going to be Panorama point. The highest elevation point in Nebraska, but it was on a cool 12 mile dirt road!! Ah, nope from me! I’m done with dirt roads in my car for awhile. The past few trips have hit my dirt road limit. Instead I went to a small carwash because who can resist a rural pressure washer car wash?!
On my way to I-80 I passed a weird sign and with a double take I swung a totally legal u-turn to see. It was the “Our Lady of Peace” shrine. I had never been to a real shrine before (except in Skyrim) so I decided to take a quick peak. There were about 10 statues that depicted Jesus as he picked up, carried the cross, and was crucified on it. Then there was a sort of 10 Commandments type thing. Finally was the unavoidable giant Lady of Peace Statue. I wasn’t sure what to make of it all, but kind of glad I went to this strange place.
The trip through Colorado wasn’t super great the 2nd time because of all the rain. I’ll spare you this round of driving details, but essentially I took I-25 to Denver, then took the toll loop around (to limit my time in rush hour), then hopped back onto I-25 near Meridian and drove the rest of the way back to my duplex. I think the night driving the day before was more enjoyable! Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter of my adventures. This marked the final trip of the Philmont 2022 summer season!!
Do I need to go back to Nebraska? Hell yes! I missed a national park site again so that means….
I need to go back. 😉
Stats
- Estimated Milage: 1332mi
- Actual Miles: 1550mi
- Longest solo drive in one Philmont off day: 1056mi (Super Ambitious Backup Plan)
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