Who said Nebraska isn't scenic? Well Backpacker Magazine named the Niobrara one of the Top 10 canoeing rivers in the nation. I took this picture just south of Valentine, known as Nebraska's Heart City.
Need to hear more? Well, in 2000, National Geographic Magazine placed the Niobrara in its Adventure 100.
The National Park Service designated 76 miles of the Niobrara as a Wild and Scenic River.
From the Niobrara National Scenic River web site:
The Scenic River preserves a superb example of a Great Plains river and protects a unique ecological crossroads where six distinct ecosystems and their associated flora and fauna mix, some at or beyond their normal geographic limit.
Those are Ponderosa Pines along the river banks in that picture. To me, that means "the West." And Valentine, NE, and the part of Niobrara where I took this photo, is just west of the 100th Meridian: the traditional border between east and west in the United States.
At this point of my trip, I had that old Bob Seger song in my head, Roll Me Away:
I could go east, I could go west,
it was all up to me to decide
Just then I saw a young hawk flyin'
and my soul began to rise
And pretty soon
My heart was singin'
Roll, roll me away,
I'm gonna roll me away tonight
Gotta keep rollin, gotta keep ridin',
keep searchin' till I find what's right
And as the sunset faded
I spoke to the faintest first starlight
And I said next time
Next time
We'll get it right
Technorati tags: Canoeing Outdoors Nebraska Bob Niobrara Photography Valentine
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