Chimney Rock National Historic Site: Hiking Chimney Rock

Noelle, Sierra and I have been to Nebraska's famous Chimney Rock before. It's a famous landmark on the emigrant trails. However, we had never hiked at Chimney Rock before today. The reason we hadn't hiked there before, was the fact that I wasn't sure hiking was allowed. Well last time I stopped in the visitor center, I asked the staff if hiking was allowed and they told me that it is. There's even a Chimney Rock hike on AllTrails, though the hike is not on an official trail. We would be doing a variation of the hike listed on AllTrails.

It was an uneventful drive east towards Chimney Rock. We made the turn off to the visitor center, passed the building and at the T intersection, made a right turn. Surprisingly, there was a lot of traffic on the narrow, dirt road. It turns out there was something happening at the Chimney Rock Pioneer Cemetery on this Sunday morning. We parked along the side of the road and found the trail. It immediately led down into a ravine. With snow covering the ground, it was a slick descent down into the gully.

The shrubs in the ravine showed signs of major browsing, by rabbits I assume.

We climbed out of the ravine and roughly paralleled a fence line for a bit. 

There was a constant view of our objective for the hike. Soon enough we could see the memorial plaque that was set in a concrete base. We stopped and Noelle pointed it out to Sierra.

Before we knew it, we were approaching the base of the spire.

We stopped at the memorial for a photo,

and then decided to circumnavigate the rock. We did so in a clockwise direction.

The north-facing sides of the rock seemed to hold more snow than other sides.

There were a few more ravines to traverse.

We found the lights that are used to illuminate the rock at night. During the holidays, the lights are green and red.

Before we knew it, we had completed the loop back to near the memorial. A few more nice views of the landmark were offered.

Then, it was a short hike back to the car. 

It was a fun hike and interesting to see Chimney Rock from different angles. It appears that there will soon be an official trail that leads from the visitor center to the base of the rock. I wanted to make the hike to Chimney Rock before the trail is built and then return to see how the experience changes once the trail is completed. Judging from the fact that we didn't see any evidence of trail construction, it might be a while before we can hike the new trail.