Today Noelle, Sierra, Rosie and I drove north up towards Chadron for a hike in the Nebraska National Forest. We drove through Alliance and into the forest near the Pine Ridge Job Corps. From there, it was a nice drive on gravel and dirt roads to the Cliffs Picnic Area and Trailhead.
We had intended to hike a loop I had found on AllTrails called the Canyon Loop. However, I found the trail system a bit confusing and we ended up hiking a combination of two different loops called the Road Loop and the Water Loop.
We hit the trail by walking a short section of road,
crossed a cattle guard (I had to carry Rosie across it) and then along a true trail that followed a fence into the ponderosa pine forest.
The hike alternated between deep forest and open meadow.
Once we had reached the top of a ridge, there were nice views off to the lower elevations and distant ridges.
After a little confusion, we found ourselves at a signed junction with another old road. We turned left here and after a short distance the road ended and we were on a singletrack trail. Again, there were lots of great views.
We eventually descended down to a small creek and decided to follow the creek upstream for a bit.
Noelle found a really nice deer skull off to the side of the trail.
After hiking upstream for maybe a half mile, we ascended away from the creek. Sierra was tired at this point, and so we stopped to eat a snack.
After our short break we climbed steeply up to an old road.
At our next junction we turned left and started to make our way along a grassy plateau, back towards the car.
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