Saturday, January 25, 2025

Scotts Bluff National Monument: Hiking the Western Boundary North from Old Oregon Trail to Irrigation Canal

Another cold day. I headed out to the west entrance of the monument and parked the car alongside the road to hike more of the boundary. I knew it would be chilly today, but I wasn't expecting the wind that greeted me as I set out on my hike.


I followed the boundary as it made its way north past some homes on private property. Eventually I reached the point where the Emigrant Trail had once carried hundreds of thousands of pioneers west to new homes.


For a good portion of the beginning of the hike there was a fence along the boundary that made for an obvious route. However, after about a half mile the fence ends and according to the online map I was using, the boundary was in the bottom of a shallow ravine. I followed the ravine to a couple of large trees that grew along the irrigation canal.


Here I followed the canal east, past occasional posts which once were posted with NPS boundary signs, 


to the point where I had turned around on last Sunday's hike. At the turnaround point I opted to hike back to the start using a slightly different route so that I could check out an interesting looking prairie dog town.


Distance hiked: 3.1 miles

Cumulative distance hiked in 2025: 25.3 miles

No comments: