Nebraska

Passes and routes

1. Sandhills Journey Scenic BywayPaved

   272 miles

   Grand Island and Alliance, on Nebraska Highway 2

   The Department of Transportation puts it at 272 miles across the Sandhills. It passes the Nebraska National Forest entrance at Bessey, where the Forest Service directs visitors to Thedford, 17 miles west, for fuel and groceries. 31

   Vehicle

   Any vehicle. Long gaps between fuel

2. Bridges to Buttes BywayPaved

   197 miles

   Valentine and the Wyoming border, on US 20

   The northern crossing of the state, 197 miles from Valentine west to the Wyoming line. It links the Niobrara country to Chadron, Crawford and the Pine Ridge, and is the highway the Samuel R. McKelvie approach leaves from at Nenzel. 31

   Vehicle

   Any vehicle

3. Gold Rush BywayPaved

   158 miles

   The South Dakota and Colorado lines, on US 385

   A 158-mile run the length of the panhandle. It passes Chadron State Park and the Pine Ridge trailheads at the north end and meets the Sandhills Journey at Alliance. 31

   Vehicle

   Any vehicle

4. Western Trails Scenic and Historic BywayPaved

   144 miles

   Ogallala and the Wyoming border, on US 26 and Nebraska Highway 92

   A 144-mile route northwest from Ogallala along the North Platte. It runs past Lake McConaughy, through Oshkosh, where the Crescent Lake refuge road heads north, and on to Scottsbluff and Gering. 31

   Vehicle

   Any vehicle

5. Outlaw Trail Scenic BywayPaved

   231 miles

   Near South Sioux City and Valentine, on Nebraska Highway 12

   The Department of Transportation calls it a 231-mile jaunt along the northern edge of the state. It follows the Missouri National Recreational River corridor at the east end and reaches Fort Niobrara and Valentine at the west. 31

   Vehicle

   Any vehicle

6. Loup Rivers Scenic BywayPaved

   150 miles

   Wood River and Dunning, on Nebraska Highways 11 and 91

   A 150-mile line through the Loup valleys that ends at Dunning on Highway 2, which makes it a way into or out of the Sandhills that avoids retracing the byway. 31

   Vehicle

   Any vehicle

7. Lincoln Highway Scenic and Historic BywayPaved

   400 miles

   The eastern and western state lines, on US 30

   Four hundred miles of the first coast-to-coast route, running parallel to I-80 and the Platte for the width of the state. The slow way across Nebraska, through the towns rather than past them. 31

   Vehicle

   Any vehicle

8. Scotts Bluff Summit RoadPaved

   4,659 ft

   The visitor center at Gering to the summit

   Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and opened to the public on September 19, 1937. The summit stands at 4,659 feet, about 800 feet above the North Platte River, and on a clear day the Park Service says you can see about a hundred miles west to Laramie Peak. 24

   Vehicle

   Cars and small vehicles. RVs and trailers are not permitted

9. The road to Agate Fossil BedsPaved

   Harrison, in Sioux County, to the monument on River Road

   The Park Service puts the monument about 52 miles north of Scotts Bluff, and is blunt about the country between: cellular voice and data service is spotty for most major carriers across western Nebraska, and the nearest gas stations, groceries and restaurants are at least 30 miles away. Two trails leave the visitor center, the 2.8-mile Fossil Hills and the 1-mile Daemonelix. Note the clock: the monument runs on Mountain time. 25

   Vehicle

   Any vehicle. Carry fuel and food

10. Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge drive

    Valentine east on Nebraska Highway 12 into the refuge

    The refuge starts five miles east of Valentine and covers 19,131 acres, with a bison herd held at about 350 head and a 4,635-acre wilderness designated in 1976. Nine miles of the Niobrara National Scenic River run through it, five of them below Cornell Dam open for launching a canoe, kayak or tube. Day use is free. 22

    Vehicle

    Any vehicle on the refuge roads

11. Toadstool Road and Sandcreek Road

    Crawford to Toadstool Geologic Park and Hudson-Meng

    From the US 20 junction at Crawford, Highway 2 runs north five miles to Toadstool Road, then Toadstool Road and Sandcreek Road head west about 15 miles into the Oglala badlands. The campground at the end has 12 sites, fire rings and vault toilets and no water, at $15 a night with $3 per vehicle for day use. The Bison Trail links it to Hudson-Meng, three miles one way. 13

    Vehicle

    Any vehicle in dry weather. The Forest Service warns the roads are very difficult when wet

    Season

    Open year round. Wait for dry roads

12. Bessey OHV Trail System

    36 miles

    The Bessey Recreation Complex, the Dismal Trailhead, Whitetail Campground and the Powerline Trailhead

    The Forest Service calls it one of the few motorized trail riding areas in Nebraska open to the public: about 36 miles of sandy trail through planted forest and grassland, with straightaways and tight curves, plus two open areas where cross-country riding is allowed, the Hill Climb and the Dismal. 8

    Vehicle

    Vehicles 64 inches or less in width. Not open to full-size trucks

13. Little Hay Road Wildlife Drive

    9 miles

    The western part of Valentine National Wildlife Refuge

    A 9-mile gravel drive past three lakes and through high dunes, meadows and marshes, with an interpretive brochure at the entrance. The refuge office is about 30 miles south of Valentine on US 83 and about 41 miles north of Thedford. 21

    Vehicle

    Any vehicle on the gravel. Off-road driving is prohibited and ATVs are not allowed

14. Lake McConaughy Shoreline Road and the beach camping areas

    Martin Bay, Arthur Bay and Sandy Beach entrances, eight miles northeast of Ogallala

    Nebraska’s largest reservoir at 30,000 surface acres. Shoreline Road reaches 16 designated beach camping areas with more than 950 campsites depending on water level, and Cedar View adds one more area with 40. Game and Parks counts about 1,000 non-designated beach campsites across 17 zoned areas when the water allows. 37

    Vehicle

    Sand. Vehicles are prohibited in the walk-in day-use beach areas

    Season

    Reservations required May 20 to September 10. First come, first served September 11 to May 19

15. State Spur 16F to Steer Creek

    Nenzel on US 20 south into the Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest

    The Forest Service route into 116,000 acres of Sandhills forest: turn south at Nenzel and continue about 11 miles to the entrance. Steer Creek Campground has 23 sites, eight horse corrals, potable water and the 1-mile Blue Jay trail. No fee is charged to enter the forest, and the spur also reaches the Niobrara canoe launch at the river bridge. 11

    Vehicle

    Any vehicle. Sand roads beyond the campground

Rules worth knowing

One administration, five units, two states

The Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands take in the Nebraska National Forest, the Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest, the Oglala National Grassland, and Buffalo Gap and Fort Pierre National Grasslands in South Dakota. Federal land is 1.1 percent of Nebraska, 558,783 acres by the Congressional Research Service’s count, so the units are small and scattered and the office that runs them covers two states. 6

The forest at Halsey was planted by hand

The Nebraska National Forest near Halsey began in 1902 as an experiment to raise trees and plant them nearby, and became what the Forest Service calls the largest human-planted forest in the United States; its home page says the largest hand-planted forest in the western hemisphere. Either way it is a forest that exists because people put it there, in the middle of sandhills that grow grass. 7

Bessey charges twenty dollars a year for day use

An annual day-use pass for the Bessey Recreation Complex costs 20 dollars, and without one the day-use areas charge per visit. The complex is the developed centre of the Halsey forest, with a campground beside it, and it is the only fee ground in this guide’s Nebraska list. 9

Pine Ridge is the other half of the forest

The Pine Ridge unit at Chadron is the escarpment country in the northwest, and it carries the 40-mile Pine Ridge Trail, which is open to hiking, biking and horses but not to motors. It is the most vertical ground in the state and the only part of Nebraska that looks like the Black Hills. 10

Soldier Creek is the larger of two Nebraska wildernesses

Soldier Creek Wilderness was created by Congress in 1986 and covers 7,794 acres inside the Pine Ridge section, which makes it the larger of the state’s two federally designated wilderness areas. The other is the 4,635-acre portion of Fort Niobrara designated in 1976. Neither takes a vehicle. 15

The Oglala grassland is the badlands corner

The Oglala National Grassland occupies the far northwest of Nebraska, where the ground breaks into badlands around Toadstool. It is administered with the South Dakota grasslands rather than with the sandhills forest, and its character is much closer to Buffalo Gap than to Halsey. 12

Toadstool Road is difficult when wet

From Crawford, take Highway 2 north five miles to Toadstool Road, then follow Toadstool and Sandcreek roads west about 15 miles. The Forest Service says the roads are very difficult to drive when wet and recommends waiting until they are dry. Toadstool campground has 12 sites with tables, fire rings, grills and two accessible vault toilets, and no water, at three dollars a vehicle for day use and 15 dollars a night. 14

On the grasslands, the motor vehicle use map is the answer

The Forest Service’s own scenic drives page for Nebraska says motor vehicle use maps show where driving is allowed, and recommends having one for many of the drives. On ground this open, the map is doing more work than the signs, and there is often nothing on the ground to tell you a route has ended. 17

Camping on the national forest, and where it is

The forest publishes its campgrounds and cabins as one page covering both the sandhills and the Pine Ridge units. In a state where the federal estate is barely one percent of the ground, that short list is the whole federal camping supply, and the state parks carry everything else. 19

Fire danger is posted on the forest’s alerts page

The Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands publish alerts and fire danger together, which is the right place to look before planning a fire anywhere on the units. Grass fire moves faster than anything in this guide, and the danger rating changes with the wind rather than with the season. 20

Crescent Lake is 28 miles of sandhills road from Oshkosh

Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1931, sits 28 miles north of Oshkosh on sandhills roads. Getting there is the experience: soft-surfaced county roads through dunes and wet meadows, in country the Fish and Wildlife Service describes as part of the largest system of sand dunes in the western hemisphere. 23

The Niobrara is 76 miles of scenic river

Niobrara National Scenic River covers 76 miles of the river, designated in 1991, of which the Park Service is responsible for 67 miles and the Fish and Wildlife Service for nine through Fort Niobrara. The Park Service owns only about 188 acres of it, which is why the river is a corridor rather than a park with a boundary. 26

The scenic river is managed with other people’s land

Because the Park Service owns so little of the Niobrara corridor, management runs through agreements with landowners, the refuge and the state. That is worth understanding before planning access: the river is public, the banks mostly are not, and the put-ins are the places where that has been arranged. 27

The Missouri recreational river is two reaches

The Missouri National Recreational River covers a 59-mile reach and a 39-mile reach, with about 1,100 acres in federal ownership. Like the Niobrara it is a river corridor rather than a block of land, and access is at the designated points rather than along it. 28

Gavins Point and Lewis and Clark Lake anchor the northeast

Gavins Point Dam, in southeast South Dakota, impounds Lewis and Clark Lake on the Nebraska line, and the Corps of Engineers recreation around it is the developed camping for that corner of the state. On the Missouri, the Corps is the landlord even when the state park has the name on the gate. 29

Harlan County Lake is six Corps parks on 13,250 acres

The Corps manages the 13,250-acre Harlan County Lake in south central Nebraska with six parks around it. It is the largest block of public shoreline in that half of the state, and the one place there where arriving without a booking usually works. 30

Nebraska uses variable speed limits

The Department of Transportation is authorised to use digital or electronic speed limit signs and lower the posted limit when conditions require, which is worth knowing on the interstates in winter: the number on the sign is the legal limit at that moment, not a maximum that weather reduces informally. 33

A park entry permit is seven dollars a day, or fourteen

A park entry permit gives unlimited access for the calendar year to Nebraska’s state parks. For a Nebraska-plated vehicle it is seven dollars daily or 35 annually; for an out-of-state vehicle 14 daily or 70 annually. The permit is separate from any camping fee, and it is per vehicle rather than per person. 34

Five levels of camping, and a shoulder-season discount

The state offers five levels of camping across its parks, historical parks and recreation areas: full hookup, electric plus, electric, basic and primitive. Most modern facilities, hookups, showers, restrooms and dump stations, close from mid-October through April depending on weather, and off-season rates are five dollars less a night except primitive, which stays ten dollars year round. Acquire firewood within 50 miles and burn all of it. 36

Fort Robinson is the state park in the Pine Ridge

Fort Robinson sits in the Pine Ridge country in the northwest, next to the national forest unit and the Soldier Creek Wilderness, and it is the practical base for driving that corner of Nebraska. Its own page answered every request made for this guide with a refusal, so no figure from it is stated here; check it directly before relying on facilities or season. 38

An ATV may not exceed thirty miles an hour on a road

Nebraska statute keeps all-terrain and utility-type vehicles off any controlled-access highway with more than two marked lanes, and limits operation on other highways to farm use or to city and village roads where an ordinance allows it, between sunrise and sunset, with a Class O licence and liability insurance, at no more than thirty miles an hour. A plated full-size truck or van is neither an all-terrain vehicle nor a utility-type vehicle under those definitions, which is this guide’s reading of the statute rather than a quotation. 40

Where the elevations in this guide come from

Town and summit elevations here are read from the 3D Elevation Program surface at the coordinates the Geographic Names Information System holds for the place, run by this project’s own build script, unless an agency publishes its own figure for the same place. 4

Dispersed camping is 14 days, and 300 feet from the road

On the Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands, dispersed camping is allowed on most of the forest for a maximum of 14 nonconsecutive days in any 30-day period. Camp at least 100 feet from any creek or stream and half a mile from a developed recreation site, and note that you may drive no more than 300 feet off a road shown on the Motor Vehicle Use Map even though you may walk and camp farther. The forest’s camping page states the limit differently, as 14 days in any 60-day period, so ask the district if it matters to your trip. 18

The Motor Vehicle Use Map decides, and cross-country travel does not count

The Forest Service asks drivers to use only roads, trails and areas designated open on the Motor Vehicle Use Map, and says cross-country travel is prohibited unless you are inside a designated open area. In Nebraska that means the Hill Climb at Bessey. Designated motorized trails exist only on the Bessey and Pine Ridge ranger districts, and both limit trail use to vehicles 64 inches wide or less, measured in total width rather than wheelbase. Recreational riding inside developed campgrounds is prohibited; an OHV may only be used to enter and leave. 16

A park entry sticker is required at state parks

Nebraska Game and Parks requires a park entry permit sticker on the vehicle for its state parks, recreation areas and historical parks, and the annual permit runs the calendar year. For a Nebraska-licensed vehicle it is $35 a year or $7 a day, with a half-price duplicate at $17.50 for a second household vehicle. For a vehicle licensed outside Nebraska it is $70 a year or $14 a day, with a $35 duplicate. Buy it at the park, at a Game and Parks office, from a permit vendor or online before you arrive. 35

Nebraska sells no off-highway trail sticker, but it does define the machines

Nebraska law defines an all-terrain vehicle as 50 inches or less in width on three or more nonhighway tires, and a utility-type vehicle as 74 inches or less in width, no more than 180 inches long including the bumper, on four or more nonhighway tires. Machines modified with after-market parts beyond the required equipment cannot be registered under the Motor Vehicle Registration Act. Neither type may run on a controlled-access highway of more than two marked lanes, and elsewhere their highway use is limited to farm purposes or to roads a city, village or county has opened by ordinance, between sunrise and sunset, under 30 miles an hour, with a Class O licence and liability insurance. By those definitions a plated full-size truck or van is neither, which is our reading of the statutes rather than a sentence the state publishes. 39

Lake McConaughy runs on a calendar, and its walk-in beaches are closed to vehicles

All camping at Lake McConaughy and Lake Ogallala is by advance reservation during peak season, May 20 to September 10, with campground sites bookable 180 days out and beach sites 30 days out. From September 11 the sites go first come, first served and you register and pay at an iron ranger box that takes cash or checks only. Alcohol is prohibited at both areas. Vehicles and overnight camping are prohibited in the walk-in day-use beach areas, and visitors must stay clear of marked or fenced nesting ground for interior least terns and piping plovers and keep pets leashed. 37

School trust land is leased ground, not public ground

The Board of Educational Lands and Funds holds Nebraska’s school trust land as trustee under the state constitution, for the benefit of the state’s K-12 schoolchildren, and its duty is to earn income from it. The Board collects rent on roughly 3,200 agricultural leases plus mineral and renewable energy leases, and recreational use is sold as a lease, tract by tract, at auctions held in the county where the tract sits. Land shaded as state-owned on a map is somebody’s lease. Treat it as you would any private ground and ask first. 41

There is no chain law. There is 511, and there are gates

Nebraska publishes no traction or chain requirement. What the Department of Transportation does publish is the authority to use digital or electronic signs to temporarily lower speed limits in adverse weather and environmental conditions, naming fog, precipitation, dust and smoke, and a statewide road condition service at 511.nebraska.gov that it links from its own travel pages. In a state where the west has better than a 50 percent chance of a blizzard in any given year, checking that before you set out matters more than what is on your tires. Fire restrictions work the same way: the Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands posts alerts and a daily fire danger status rather than a fixed seasonal calendar, so read the alerts page for the district you are heading into. 32