On the Trail: Scottsbluff, Nebraska--September 17 & 18

From Ft. Robinson we headed south toward Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. It is in the middle of no where, but interesting. There were many fossils of prehistoric mammals--no dinosaurs.

Right beside the monument sign was another sign--one that made me stay on the pavement and not get in the picture. Notice that there is no 's' on the second word! Evidently there is one snake that stays in the rocks near the sign.
We walked the mile paved trail to see fossils encased in rock. We took this picture to receive credit for a geocache. The spirals called demon corkscrews were made by prehistoric beavers.
After touring the visitor center we returned to the rv and continued on our way south. Next stop: Scottsbluff, Nebraska.

We stopped at their city park--Riverside--which is next to their zoo.

We spent the night and visited the zoo Thursday morning. Scottsbluff is a small town, and the zoo was impressive for a small town. Each section of the zoo is cared for by local families or businesses. In addition to lions, chimps, monkeys, eagles, tigers, and red pandas, there was a duck with a mohawk!
From the zoo we walked back to the rv and rode to Scotts Bluff National Monument. When people traveling the Oregon Trail saw Scotts Bluff in the distance, they knew they had completed 1/3 of their journey.
Bob didn't want to unhook the car to drive to the top so we rode in a park shuttle. The ranger gave us a running commentary all the way to the top. Once again, the CCC had a hand in building a national monument. We thanked the ranger for the ride and hiked the 1.6 miles to the bottom and back to the visitor center. If you look closely you can see the trail in this picture.
The tunnel is in the right third of the above picture. Here is the view looking south from the middle of the tunnel.
We left Scotts Bluff National Monument and headed for Colorado. It was a long, boring ride. The scenery never changed--rolling grasslands all the way! We stopped at Brush! Colorado City Park. The park has electric and water hook-ups--free the first night! And yes, there is an exclamation point after the city's name. They added it to indicate the can-do attitude of the people.

Next to the rv park was a city park with playgrounds, pool, football, baseball, and soccer fields. Across the street was a lake stocked with rainbow trout. It was a nice place to spend the night.

Friday morning we started the long drive to New Mexico. We weren't sure where we were going to stop, but we knew we would make New Mexico.