Floating the Niobrara River-A National Scenic Waterway

When we find that something has been distinguished as a NATIONAL park, or a NATIONAL memorial, or a NATIONAL historic site, we make plans to check it out. We've never been disappointed. So we are in Valentine, Nebraska, to kayak on the Niobrara River--a NATIONAL scenic waterway.

We did our homework, and found that some of the best scenery on this 73-mile national waterway starts close to the wildlife refuge we visited the day before. So we arrived early to put our kayak in the water at the Cornell Bridge. We're here early because the weatherman is predicting rain for this afternoon, and we all know that weathermen are never wrong.

We had to purchase a $1 wrist bracelet to be worn while floating through the refuge. It doesn't matter to us, but it is also illegal to consume alcoholic beverages while floating through the refuge. That would put a damper on some people's float trips.

Because of all the rain, the water is running faster than usual. We won't be using our oars for locomotion today--just for steering along these tall cliffs on the side of the river.

While Mark was steering with his paddle, Denisa just laid hers to the side. That means her hands are free to snap WAY too many pictures. Leaving early in the morning, we had whispy white clouds on that bright blue sky. It's a beautiful day to be on the water.

Our kayak trip is twelve miles today, and we are floating at a rate of about 4 miles per hour.

We got out to stretch our legs at midpoint near one of those dramatic cliffs. Up to this point we hadn't seen a soul on the river, but the ranger had warned us that a group of 32 students weren't far behind us.

It's hard to describe how tall the cliffs are, so we were glad that the group came floating by while we were taking pictures. It is hard to see the tiny boats, as they are dwarfed by the big beauty beside them.

With the beautiful blue skies and the puffy white clouds, it was a perfect day to be on this river--dubbed as one of the prettiest in the country.

We are blessed to be wandering in our kayak down another of God's wonders today!

The Niobrara River is unique in that it has something called "surge flow." According to the web site, these "periodic surges move along the water surface forming surge-like breaking waves that can reach heights of three feet or more." They more often happen when the river is up, so we experienced the waves many times today.

Going through these wavy sections was like going through rapids of a faster river.

We enjoyed the songs of the birds as we floated down the river in quiet solitude. We didn't get pictures of the tiny songbirds, but we did manage a photo of this ugly old turkey walking close to the water.

But our favorite wildlife sighting of the day was of this doe in the tall grass. She was looking up when we first spotted her, but she ducked her head when Denisa snapped the picture. It wasn't until later that we realized she was nuzzling the area where she had left her fawn, whose tiny head is peeking out of the grass.

We spoke to the ranger before we left on this 12-mile journey, asking for landmarks so we could recognize our take-out spot at the state park. He mentioned this waterfall about half-way down our float trip.

He also mentioned that we would see a total of five bridges, so we counted them along the way.

When we looked back at the fourth bridge, we could see that the gray clouds were building behind us.

The fifth bridge was our cue to get out for a hike to Smith Falls. Now we can see that the rain clouds are also in front of us. We might be getting wet today after all.

It felt good to stretch our legs and make the short hike to Smith Falls. At 65 feet, this is the tallest waterfall in the state of Nebraska.

It felt like we were standing in the rain when we were standing close to the falls.

From the look of the clouds, we could be standing in the rain very soon. So we were glad that our take-out was just around the corner in the state park. In preparation for this river trip, Denisa had called several local outfitters, but none were interested in shuttling customers with their own kayak. That's when we came up with the plan for Mark to ride his bike through the wildlife refuge. But after we arrived in Valentine, we found that the owner of our campground works at the state park. So we arranged for him to give us a ride home after work. We packed up our inflatable kayak while it was sprinkling, and ate our packed lunch under a covered picnic table while we waited for Joe's quitting time. Then Joe shuttled us back to our car on his way home. Staying at Wacky West Campground had a benefit that we didn't even know about when we made that reservation!

It was a great day on the Niobrara River, with its steep canyon banks and its quirky surge flows. We are blessed to have witnessed the scenery of this NATIONAL scenic waterway, and now we're ready to head on down the road for more adventures!