Rovering and Four-Wheeling The Nebraska Sandhills in June 2014

[roverrocks]

I visited the Nebraska Sandhills twice in 2013 but could not take advantage of the many many miles of Federal and State 4wd two-track trails I passed by and wanted avidly to explore. This summer of 2014 I loaded up my aging Land Rover with with gear, supplies, and my lovely wife and drove the 600 miles to the vast 20,000 sq. miles of these jewel-like Sandhills. This vast mostly private last great American Prairie of rolling grass covered ancient sand dunes is visited by few people but is a great treasure of prairie vegetation, wildlife, 13,000 lakes of various sizes and exquisite small rivers of names like the Dismal, Snake, Niobrara and Loup. There are several large areas of Federal lands of wildlife refuges and National Forest (mostly grassland) that have many many miles of seldom used 4wd trails crisscrossing the landscape and connecting the numerous windmills, lakes, streams, small forests and wetlands. My wife and myself visited three of these large areas and explored: (1)the Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge in the western Sandhills, (2)the Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest in the northern Sandhills near Valentine, Nebraska and (3)the Nebraska National Forest in the central Sandhills near Halsey, Nebraska. We four wheeled approximately 85 miles of beautiful two-track seldom-visited but legally open trails and spent a day wandering and photographing each area. The tall maturing native Needle-and-Thread grass seed-heads kept filling my truck grill and ARB bullbar and had to be removed. They are sharp little devils that are 4-6" long. The immense areas of tall waving prairie grasses looked like rolling fields of golden shining nectar in the breezes and I often half expected Sioux or Pawnee braves chasing bison to coming charging over the green hills. We saw only two other trucks and one of these was a Fed asking if we were lost which we were not (at least not at the moment we saw him). There are more trails than our maps showed but we found our way around. All the windmills on these Federal lands are numbered and that helped our route finding a great deal. Here are pictures (far too many I know) of these intriguing/beguiling Sandhills prairie trails. These first 10 are from the Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

 

[roverrocks]

Rovering and Four-Wheeling The Nebraska Sandhills in June 2014 cont.

Ten more pictures from the 45,818 acre Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge and adjoining State lands on the south.

 

[roverrocks]

Rovering and Four-Wheeling The Nebraska Sandhills in June 2014 cont.

Time now to visit the 116,079 acre Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest which lies SW of Valentine, Nebraska. This mainly Sandhills and mixed-prairie area is bounded on the north by the Niobrara River and Valley which is almost all on private land. On the East and South the Federal lands are bordered by the Snake River and a large reservoir on the Snake River called Merritt Reservoir which has great fishing and boating and camping. Here are lots of pictures. I am dangerous with a digital camera in my hands as I never know when to stop.

 

[roverrocks]

Rovering and Four-Wheeling The Nebraska Sandhills in June 2014 cont.

More pictures from the Samuel R. McKelvie 4wd trails.

 

[roverrocks]

Rovering and Four-Wheeling The Nebraska Sandhills in June 2014 cont.

More photos from the Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest in the northern Nebraska Sandhills.
#1-Approaching the Niobrara River Valley from the south
#2-Off of National Forest land and approaching the Niobrara River thru the valley bottomlands
#3-The old rural bridge over the Niobrara River
#4&#5-The Niobrara River on private lands north about 1.5 miles of National Forest lands.
#6-Back south onto national forest lands and traveling westward along the Niobrara River Valley towards paved Road 16F about 9 miles away.
#8-A Shell Leaved Penstemon, most had already bloomed.
#7-Fragrant prairie mints
#9-Plains Prickly Pear cactus, not much of this in the Sandhills but there is an occasional plant plus a few Opuntia fragilis as well (Fragile Prickly Pear)
#10-Approaching hand planted Ponderosa Pines from about 1930 and the CCC days.

 

[roverrocks]

Rovering and Four-Wheeling The Nebraska Sandhills in June 2014 cont.

Last photos from the Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest 4wd trails. The last two pictures were taken from the paved roads near Merritt Reservoir and of white pelicans near it's dam. This reservoir lies adjacent to the National Forest on the SE corner and is Nebraska Game and Parks state land.

 

[roverrocks]

Rovering and Four-Wheeling The Nebraska Sandhills in June 2014 cont.

These photos now are from mostly little used 4wd trails the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey, Nebraska in central Nebraska. This unit comprises 90,000 acres of which 20,000 acres are hand planted pine forest and 70,000 acres Sandhills grassland. This is the largest hand planted forest in the U.S. I have read.

 

[roverrocks]

Rovering and Four-Wheeling The Nebraska Sandhills in June 2014 cont.

More Nebraska National Forest 4wd trail photos.

 

[roverrocks]

Rovering and Four-Wheeling The Nebraska Sandhills in June 2014 cont.

The last photos from the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey, Nebraska. Once again plowing through high stands of Needle-and Thread grass on the two track trails in many areas. The river my wife is wading in is the Dismal River which borders the south side of the National Forest.

 

[kpredator]

nebraska

great pics roverrocks
looks as if you could have used a seed net!!!
used to blow thru nebraska heading west,found the niobrara country
now we always spend a couple days there
kp

 

[roverrocks]

great pics roverrocks
looks as if you could have used a seed net!!!
used to blow thru nebraska heading west,found the niobrara country
now we always spend a couple days there
kp

We could have used a flamethrower to kill off the hordes of mosquitos and deer flies but then they might have eaten the napalm. The seeds were cool and I came back to Colorado with plenty still inside my bullbar and socks. The Niobrara River Country is extraordinary. Glad you get there. I wish we were closer to it.

 

[2 E L O]

Great pictures. Nice to see more people appreciate Nebraska! It's not so bad once you distance yourself from I-80.

 

[Toyman01]

Nice pictures. Thanks for sharing!

 

[mph]

Wow...awesome photos. Nice to see some photos of places less traveled!

 

[BigSwede]

Good stuff. That area is on the list...