A Destination

I honestly never thought of Nebraska as a destination.  It was more of a place to drive through or fly over.  My thoughts have changed on that.  If you pause and think, the beauty of the plains, although not a gaudy as the mountains or the sea, is just as beautiful. We spent our time along the Platte River that bisects the state and flows west to the east.  The Platte is the largest, braided river in the lower 48 states. I had never heard of braided rivers before but now I know, braided rivers are shallow and without much of a valley. Braided rivers are sandy and the waters form sand bars.  The water flow braids itself in and around the sand bars.  Near the Rowe Sanctuary, volunteers and naturalists work together to keep the Platte River open.  They use tractors to disk the sandbars so vegetation cannot take root.  When the sandbars are allowed to form islands with vegetation, the river changes from muddy, broad and shallow to deeper, faster and clearer.  The cranes prefer shallow, slow and broad.  When they stand on the shallow water on a sandbar, they are safer from predators like raccoons and coyotes because they can hear the splashing.  The river prevents sneak attacks from four footed foes.  And the fewer trees are safer for the cranes.  Cranes never land in trees.  They are strictly on the ground, standing in shallow water, or flying.  The back toe on the cranes is too small and non-functional so it cannot perch.  The area around the Rowe Sanctuary is a luxury for the sand hill cranes.  The cranes stand in other parts of the Platte River but not in such great numbers because they prefer the ideal conditions.  Who wouldn't?  On our trip we spent most of our time on the north side of the Platte.  The major towns were on the north side.  The restaurants and hotels were on the north side.  Interstate 80 is on the north side.  Also on the north side of the Platte is the historic Mormon trail.  On the south side of the Platte is the Oregon Trail and the Pony Express trail.  The south side of the Platte has many pioneer historical markers.  There was a lot to see in Nebraska beside the sand hill crane migration. We didn't get to it all.  Native Nebraskans suggested we drive home by going north and west through the scenic sand hill country adding 3 hours to our drive.  We were already facing a ten hour drive.  But we did consider going after looking it up and discovering Highway 2 through the sand hill country is considered to be in the top 10 legendary American scenic drives right up there with Highway 1 in California, the "Road To the Sun" in Glacier National Park, and the Hana Highway in Hawaii.  And we were so close!  We'll just have to go back someday.