Adrift On The Niobrara 07/02/21

Fishberry Campground, Valentine, Nebraska

Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him. The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. . . . so all the wells that his father’s servants had dug . . . the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth. ~ Genesis 26:12-15 The Lord blesses Isaac more than he deserves, but every bit as God has promised him. Isn’t it wonderful that we have such a gracious God who doesn’t punish us as our sins deserve? Did you notice the well issue again? The same thing happened with Abraham. Water is a precious resource in the Middle East. It’s no wonder people fight over it.

It was necessary to be out the door by 8am this morning. We had to drive to the National Park area we checked out yesterday, park, set up the kayak, then Blaine left me with the boat and drove the Jeep about 30 minutes to our end point (19 miles downriver) called Penbrook Landing, where he had to wait for a driver to bring him back upstream to where I was waiting.

I was alone – almost completely and totally alone – for about 2 hours. It seems people were late arriving at Penbrook, so the driver had to wait. There are other starting/ending points between where we put in and Penbrook, and the entire van load (except for Blaine) was dropped off, along with their tubes somewhere else.

Hey, I was smart enough to bring my book along! I enjoyed sitting and reading under a shade tree!

Once Blaine arrived, we had a quick snack, then headed out.

I’m not a very good selfie taker.
My arms are too short. : )

It was a gorgeous day! A wonderful river! Beautiful views! And frequent white water (not really rapids) along the way. Blaine had to get out and tow us through a couple of low spots, and once I had to exit the boat as well. But the water was really warm, so we didn’t mind.

We don’t usually have to navigate turbulent waters. We both found it a lot of fun!
Even when the river water occasionally found its way over the side, and into the boat. : )

This is Buffalo Bridge.
According to the movie we watched at the National Park, the buffalo actually cross this bridge on occasion! Wouldn’t that be a hoot to see?!?!

Some of the walls of this river leak. It’s part of what contributes to the river.
The water comes from their enormous aquifer that’s only a couple of feet deep.
In the winter, all that water freezes and makes for a gorgeous paddle!

There were no good places to park on the bank for lunch, so we ended up on a sand bar. Perfect! And since we’d been sitting for a couple of hours, it felt good to stand and eat.

There were waterfalls along the way to see, most just running right out into the river.

We don’t know what that means . . .
Does it stand for National Park Service?
And if so, why?

We drove over that bridge the other day.

This one is named. It’s called Berry Falls.

Remember when we saw all those tubes from the top of the bridge the other day?
Well, a lot of them are still here, but according to the outfitter we used, most will be in the water tomorrow.
It’ll be Saturday. On a holiday weekend. *Yikes!* Glad we were able to go today!

As far as we know, these two waterfalls are unnamed.

We have to find a place to nudge in and tie off our boat here.
Fortunately, there were several friendly guys willing to help out in anyway they could.

These kids were playing in the river, and slowly drifting downstream, until the parents noticed and decided they should leave the shore and go catch up to them. The water’s really shallow, so no worries. : )

Most everyone stops at Smith’s Falls, so I imagine it can be very difficult to get parked when it’s busy (like tomorrow and the rest of the summer, according to everyone we talked to), but it’s worth the stop. It’s actually within the Smith Falls State Park, and there’s an $8 day use fee for the Park, but for those on the river, it’s covered by your outfitter fee.

There were two waterfalls where you exited the boat, tied it off, and walked to see. One, Smith’s Falls, happens to be the highest one in all of Nebraska! It’s a whopping 63’. I know I sound underwhelmed, and I’m really not, but to think that 63’ is the tallest in an entire state just sounds crazy. Being from Ohio, plus traveling all over, we’ve seen many much higher than that. 😊

That’s it! And the water running off it was pretty cold!

Who’s the guy photobombing our picture? Crazy kids! lol

We came across a host of camping areas as we neared the end.

Note the group with the yellow thing on the left.

What in the world were they floating in? It looked like a large plastic pool.
They had lawn chairs sitting inside it. Had to be some kind of homemade thing.

The other waterfall was mentioned to us by our outfitter. It’s not on the map. This one’s called Cedar Falls, and I was unable to locate how tall it is. One blogger said it was only ten feet, but Blaine was standing at the base and it was quite a bit taller than he is, so we’re thinking 20’? Other than that, I got nothin’.