In the summer of 2015, I spent five days exploring the extreme NW corner of Nebraska, where it adjoins Wyoming and South Dakota's Black Hills . The terrain was extremely rugged, nothing like the stereotypes of Nebraska's lush farmlands. Ranchers like the man pictured ran cattle over the irregular lands, and some began to offer visitors a place to stay or visit or dine.
To get to this chopped up, scenic land, a driver leaves a paved road far behind for a graveled road that goes across a very wide wash (river bed) that is the geologic remnant of a vast primitive waterway. In its turbulent periods the river currents and erosion left tufts of land that vary from a conference table size to a lawn-sized little mesa. The mostly vertical sides of such little pieces of land resemble the toadstools of elsewhere in the area.
This is the High Plains Homestead, a small but excellent restaurant, a very western cocktail lounge and limited overnight rooms, all in a complex like a western village.Quite charming. A visiting geology professor says the landscape and rocks of the area resulted from the creation and subsequent erosion of the Rocky Mountains to the west.
I am told that other scattered ranchers of the area also are catering to tourists, too, in differing ways. Guess you and we will have to do more exploring in this unusual part of the West.
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