- Subscribe -Follow our YouTube ChannelFollow our YouTube Channel

Nebraska's Trails West

Welcome to Western Nebraska; America's last great western frontier. Western Nebraska is a unique landscape full of memory, history and the character of the old west. We're ready for you to experience all that it has to offer in your next vacation. Enjoy a culture like no other. Discover Nebraska' trails west!

- Advertisment -spot_imgspot_img

Western Nebraska Trails West

Finding your next adventure in western Nebraska is as easy as looking across a distance field, exploring canyons, hiking buttes that rise off the intermediate prairie, or biking the dirt roads and exploring the history of the Oregon-California Trails, Agate Fossil Beds and nearby archeological sites.

Discovering western Nebraska means stepping back in the past and exploring the contemporary simultaneously. Western Nebraska offers vistas of scenic landscapes as well as outdoor adventures that rival those of Yellowstone National Park and Rocky Mountain Park, just in a different setting. Western Nebraska is for everyone. Come and join us on your next vacation adventure.

Roubadeau Pass Trading Post A replica of the trading post set up by Roubadeau in the 1800’s near Gering, Nebraska. Information on the trading post can be found at the Legacy of the Plains Museum. Photography by © 2020 Hawk Buckman

Stories from West Nebraska's Trails West Region

Continue to the category

Where the Ice Ends: Bald Eagles on Nebraska’s Rivers 

North American Adventures
Every winter, bald eagles transform Nebraska’s rivers and reservoirs into staging grounds for one of the Great Plains’ most dramatic natural events: the return of the bald eagles.

Fort Robinson: Where the Plains Remember 

North American Adventures
Western Nebraska’s Pine Ridge country looks quiet today. Rugged buttes rise over the White River valley, cottonwoods trace the water’s bends, and pronghorn graze across the open hills. But beneath the calm lies a history every bit as dramatic as the land itself. This is Fort Robinson, one of the most storied military posts of the Northern Plains.

Piercing the Veil: The Evolution of Body Modification 

Culture
Discover the rich history and cultural significance of body modification and piercing — from ancient rituals in Egypt, India, and Africa to the punk rebellion of the 1980s and today’s mainstream acceptance. Explore how piercings have symbolized identity, spirituality, and rites of passage across civilizations, and see how modern piercing culture has evolved into a celebrated form of personal expression and art.

Hot Springs, South Dakota: Where Warm Springs Meet an Ice Age Graveyard

North American Adventures
Tucked into the Southern Black Hills, Hot Springs, South Dakota, wears two coats at once: spa town and science hub. On one side of town, naturally warm, mineral-rich water still bubbles up as it has for millennia, the reason nineteenth-century visitors flocked here to “take the waters.”

Jeep Therapy: The Open Road Stress Reset 

Culture
On any given summer evening, when the sun drops low and the heat finally starts to fade, you’ll spot them: Jeeps with the doors off, the roof stashed in a garage somewhere, and a couple of friends rolling slowly down backcountry roads. The music drifts, the air rushes, and the world feels lighter for a while.

Chimney Rock Golf Course: Jewel of the Prairie 

Sports and Recreaction
Nestled in the rolling grasslands of western Nebraska, just a short drive from Bayard, sits a course that blends history, scenery, and sport into a uniquely memorable experience. Chimney Rock Golf Course, known by some proudly as “The Jewel of the Prairie.

Dancing with Light: The Art of Intentional Camera Movement 

Culture
In the world of photography—where sharpness and precision are often prized above all else—there exists a rebellious technique that throws convention to the wind. Intentional Camera Movement, or ICM, is an approach that embraces blur, motion, and abstraction, transforming everyday scenes into painterly works of art. Instead of freezing a moment in time, ICM captures the feeling of a moment—fluid, unpredictable, and alive.

Devils Tower, Wyoming: The Stone Sentinel of the Plains 

North American Adventures
Standing proud and unyielding against the vast Wyoming sky, Devils Tower is more than just a striking geological formation. It’s a symbol etched deep in Native American heritage, American pop culture, and the enduring draw of the wild West.

Behind the Scam: Understanding and Fighting Elder Financial Abuse

Culture
Marge was never the type to fall for a scam. At 78 years old, she’d lived through enough to know that if something sounded too good—or too bad—to be true, it probably was. But things have changed over the past year. Slowly, and without her realizing it, the first signs of dementia began creeping into her life. Little memory lapses here and there. A misplaced checkbook.

Haystack Rock: Oregon’s Timeless Coastal Sentinel 

North America Adventures
Haystack Rock, a 235-foot sea stack in Cannon Beach, Oregon, stands as a testament to the region's rich geological and ecological heritage.

Ink Therapy: How Tattooing Moved From Taboo to Healing Art 

Culture
Fifty years ago, tattoos in America carried a heavy social price. They were marks worn primarily by sailors, bikers, convicts, and those who lived life outside the “respectable” edges of society.

The Mentally Forgotten: Homelessness, Mental Illness & the Invisible in Scottsbluff

Culture
Scottsbluff might feel remote, but that isolation magnifies suffering for those living without shelter, fighting mental illness, addiction, or being socially outcast. “The Mentally Forgotten” follows individuals like Lloyd Mathernsen—people judged, overlooked, yet seeing little help.

Medicine Bow National Forest – Serenity and Adventure in Wyoming 

North American Adventures
Nestled in southern Wyoming, Medicine Bow National Forest offers breathtaking alpine scenery, crystal-clear lakes, and miles of trails perfect for hiking, camping, fishing, and year-round adventure.

Nebraska’s Badland Wonder: Toadstool Geologic Park & Campground 

North America Adventures
Toadstool Geologic Park and Campground in northwestern Nebraska is known for its otherworldly badlands, fossil beds, and striking rock formations shaped like giant stone mushrooms.

Mount Richthofen: Colorado’s Majestic “Great Chief” of the Never Summer Mountains

North America Adventures
Nestled in Northern Colorado’s Never Summer Mountains, Mount Richthofen—also known as the “Great Chief”—rises to 12,940 ft above sea level in Rocky Mountain National Park. Known for its vivid red-orange sedimentary rock, glacier-carved valleys, and panoramic summit views, the peak combines rugged geology, rich natural beauty, and World War I history (named for the Red Baron) into an unforgettable climb. Perfect for hikers, backpackers, and nature lovers seeking solitude and scenery beyond the typical Colorado trails.

From Powder Cache to Heritage River: The Legacy of Colorado’s Cache la Poudre

North American Adventures
The Cache la Poudre River in northern Colorado is more than a scenic waterway—it’s a river shaped by frontier history, rugged canyons, and vital water rights.

The Wyoming Wine at Table Mountain Vineyards 

Goshen County
We didn't consider a winery when passing through eastern Wyoming. What we found was delicious and unforgettable.

The Plight of Nebraska’s Black-tailed Prairie Dogs

Western Nebraska
The Great Plains encompasses the entirety of Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota and parts of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming. Each state offers ecoregions and ecosystems unto themselves and each is unique.

Ghosts of Fort Robinson: Beyond the Battlefield

North American Adventures
From phantom hoof clops to flickering lights to sightings of people long gone, Fort Robinson is full of the remnants of pain, suffering, and joy of those who lived there. Tales of ghost soldiers, wandering Native Americans, and children who have chosen to remain forever at the site. 

Fort Laramie Historical Site

Goshen County
Fort Laramie, situated in Wyoming, USA, is an iconic historic site renowned for its crucial role in shaping the American West.

Rethinking the First Americans: Evidence Before the Clovis Culture

Culture
The Clovis First model has come under debated attack as a result of discoveries found from southern Texas to the Pacific Northwest. Now. we can add Sunrise, Wyoming to that list

Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Robinson: Heroes of Western Nebraska’s Military Legacy

North American Adventures
Discover the untold story of the Buffalo Soldiers — African American members of the 9th and 10th Cavalry — who served at Fort Robinson and Fort Niobrara after the Civil War. Despite facing systemic racism, these troopers helped build the western frontier, earned multiple Medals of Honor, and challenged military traditions.

The Cheyenne Breakout: Fort Robinson Escape and Its Impact

North American Adventures
The Cheyenne Breakout involved over 140 Northern Cheyenne held at Fort Robinson who, denied the right to return north and confined without basic necessities, launched a desperate escape on January 9, 1879. This resulted in a brutal clash leading to numerous deaths among both the Cheyenne and U.S. soldiers—one of the darkest, yet pivotal, events of the Indian Wars in Nebraska.

Huntley, Wyoming: The Jewish Homestead That Nearly Disappeared

Culture
Between 1881 and 1924, 3 million European Jewish immigrants poured into the United States disillusioned and in genuine danger of annihilation...

Oasis of Tension: Mud Springs Station and the Battle That Changed Trails West

North American Adventures
Mud Springs Station is a location full of history and horror in western Nebraska. Visitors have feelings of dread, and anxiety, from the moment they arrive until they depart.

The Death of Mni Akuwin – “Brings Water Home”

Goshen County
Mni Akuwin’s body rested, undisturbed, on this platform until 1876, when Spotted Tail had her remains moved from Fort Laramie and buried at what is now the Spotted Tail Cemetery in Rosebud, South Dakota.

Calamity Jane, Wild Bill, and the Three-Mile Hog Ranch at Fort Laramie

Special Interest
While visiting Fort Laramie, take a detour to view another facet of its long and fascinating history at a lesser-known and more scandalous slice of Fort Laramie.

Sandstorm Survivor: Blowout Penstemon – Western Nebraska’s Most Endangered Plant Species

North American Adventures
The Blowout Penstemon (Penstemon haydenii) is a rare and resilient wildflower that thrives only in sand dune blowouts across western Nebraska, northern Colorado, and Wyoming.

Sheep Creek Silent Prairie, Broken Promises: The Story of Empire’s Black Settlers

North American Adventures
At the turn of the 20th Century, newspapers rarely commented on the Black community in western Nebraska unless it was related to crime. They were among many Black people who decided to move west for freedom and a better life.
- Advertisment -- Advertisment -- Advertisment -
error: Content is protected !!