Saturday, January 15, 2022

Scotts Bluff National Monument: South Bluff Hike

 First post for 2022! Today, Noelle, Sierra and I did the off-trail hike up South Bluff at Scotts Bluff National Monument. We parked at the visitor center parking lot, crossed Old Oregon Trail Road and then traversed the prairie as we made our way towards the base of South Bluff.




It was a cool morning, but luckily there wasn't much wind to contend with. Soon enough the climb commenced. We used clumps of grasses as steps to ascend the steep slope.


There were lots of great views north to the visitor center and east towards Dome Rock and Gering.



Once we had ascended to the relatively flat top of the bluff, we made our way to various viewpoints. The first viewpoint faced west with views of a distant Laramie Peak, 104 miles away. 



Next, we headed southwest to another viewpoint.


There were impressive splotches of orange lichens growing on the rocks here.


Finally, we made our way over to a southeast facing viewpoint. 



We admired the view here for a bit before making our way to the edge of the summit area for the very steep descent back to the car. 

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