I’m taking a trip where the main destinations are the Black Hills and Minneapolis, MN, coming from Chicago. Initially, I was thinking we’d drive through Iowa, then along the Iowa/Nebraska border, then west through South Dakota. On the way back, we’d just drive through SD and MN to get to Minneapolis.
I was looking at the map, and I thought it might be interesting to drive through Nebraska to get to the Black Hills. If you’ve done this or are familiar with NE, I’d like to hear from you. There’s a scenic route that goes past some mountains in western NE, and I’ve never been to Nebraska.
I would probably want to take the local highways instead of the interstate since it’s a more direct route, but wouldn’t want it to take super-long, either.
I’ve done it a million times. It’s an extremely boring route. There’s a certain romanticism I suppose…farmland, cattle, small towns, etc., America’s Heartland. The aroma of manure can be overwhelming if it’s not something you enjoy. If this doesn’t sound like your cup o’ tea, you might want to consider the short route.
There are no mountains in Nebraska. You are halfway into Colorado before you actually see mountains. I advise taking the northern route. I found it to be much more enjoyable.
It gets more interesting the further West you go, but generally speaking, it’s a snore-fest. Depending on what time of year you do the trip, you can get some kick-ass tornado-type weather or lots of cold and snow.
The very far west has some interesting topography, I’ve done a trip similar to yours and was suprised to find I enjoyed Nebraska. I’d say go for it, if it’s not much longer the US highways have high speed limits, and you can do 60+ between towns no problem.
On the eve of the fight which came to be known as the Battle of Little Bighorn, General Custer sent out a scouting party. Soon, a clearly agitated scout returned to see the general.
“Sir, I’ve got good news and bad news!”
The somewhat pompous Custer replied, “I’m a man, son… so give me the bad news first.”
“Well, sir, we’re completely surrounded, hopelessly outnumbered, and all going to die.”
After a short pause, Custer says, “OK, son, what’s the good news?”
“Sir, this means that none of the men have to ride back home through Nebraska.”
I’ve driven through Nebraska. It was basically like oh look, there’s a corn field. Hey, there’s another corn field. And another one. And another one. Golly gee, another corn field, how about that. (repeat for hours on end)
The roads are pretty decent, and there’s pretty much no traffic at all, so even on the crappiest of roads you tend to make good time. The thing that slows you down is going through the small towns. Pick a major four lane road and you’ll do good time. Get on a little two lane road and you’ll be slowing down at every three house town along the way.
It looks to me like, if you did this, you would be going through the most interesting corner of Nebraska. (Not that I have anything against Nebraska but people in my family have gone to college in Iowa and Cleveland and driving the width of Nebraska is, er, tedious. Better than Kansas though.)
We did almost that exact trip a few years back, drove from central Iowa through Nebraska and on to Colorado Springs, then north through a bit of Wyoming, more Nebraska, and then South Dakota (Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore, Deadwood) and central Minnesota.
I’d drive across Nebraska again. I didn’t mind the lack of spectacular scenery. We stopped at (if I remember right) Hutchinson and toured a pioneer museum, and we ate at a couple of great home-style places.
There’s one place you gotta see, but I don’t remember if it’s in Nebraska or Wyoming, and I don’t remember what it’s called. It’s a place where pioneers stopped and carved their names and the dates on a huge rock. The ruts from the covered wagon wheels are still there.
We did get a speeding ticket. I was suspicious, because cars with Nebraska plates were passing us, and we got the ticket.
Oooh, I found some pictures of Independence Rock, and they’re awesome. I don’t remember the place we stopped being so big, and I don’t think it was a national park. We didn’t pay to enter and there was just one small sign in town directing us to the place, and we were the only ones there, in late August on a Saturday.
Definitely smaller scale than Independence Rock, unless we came in the back way and didn’t see all of it.
Wherever it was, it was very cool. And now I want to go to Independence Rock.
I’m still on the fence; sounds like there could be some potential there. I’ll have to check out the map to see if it mentions anything about the pioneer thing. That would make it worth it.
Here’s the route I took from Rapid City last summer, going to the Rocky Mountain national park:
Left Rapid City, toured the badlands. Then through western Nebraska. Through the big reservation at Pine Ridge, to Wounded Knee. Lots of great scenery, rolling hills, some good livestock country. Longest RR trains I’ve ever seen.
Interesting native American history. (You can look up at a ridge top and know that, in all likelihood, Sitting Bull and Red Cloud once sat on their horses and looked down from that very ridge. Came out of Nebraska on it’s southern border, and thence into Colorado.
The route we chose avoided all interstates and anything that looked like it might be a four-lane road.
I was delighted with this leg of a 3000+ mile trip. If half the fun is getting there, I recommend something like this. You may want to reverse it to end in Rapid City, but it’ll be the same.
Get gas and make pee-stops at every opportunity, as it can be a long way to the next place.
Maybe Ash Hollow? There is a state park and a museum–and you can see the wagon ruts. It was a big hill. Apparently lots of pioneers dumped some of their heavy stuff there.
Nebraska ranks up there with Kansas as far as interesting driving goes. If you like your roads so flat and straight you could lock your wheel in place, set the cruise control and take a nap, it’s all you. I’m not a big fan. I have heard that the Omaha zoo has some interesting exhibits such as the rare gray squirrel and the elusive Canada goose. Seriously.
I think this might be it! I found some photos, and I remember it looking a lot like that. The countryside was a lot prettier, less desolate-looking than the photos of Independence Rock, which appears to be in the middle of nowhere. Thanks!
Here’s an interesting “side-trip” for you: Follow I-80 from Iowa/Illinois to North Platte and take a look at the Union Pacific’s huge rail-sorting yard.
West of there take US-26 (or I-80 to US 385) and west to Chimney Rock, and then further west to Scott’s Bluff. The views from there give you a good sense of the Oregon Trail and see some of the original trail tracks (with a little imagination!)
Turn back to US 385 and north to Alliance (see Carhenge) and Chadron. You’ll come up on the south side of the Black Hills of SD through Belle Fourche and Hot Springs (see the mammoth dig).
After driving through Nebraska the LONG way, in the dead of winter, to move to CA from RI years ago, I really had to think long and hard about moving back to RI because it would mean I’d have to drive through Nebraska again.*
Nothing against the people or anything, it’s just one looooong, boring state, from my two times through it.
If you have children, bring sedatives. For yourself. Because you won’t need to be awake to drive the really flat, straight road.
[sub]* Obviously I could take alternate routes. Which I did. But then my diss of Nebraska wouldn’t be as powerful. The panhandle of Texas ain’t much better![/sub]
