Nebraska has amazed me. We are camped at Lake McConaughey in Ogallala, Nebraska for the week. It is beautiful. This lake is the largest in Nebraska and has over 1500 camping spots! It also has beautiful white sand beaches. Nebraska’s soil in this area (known as the Sandhills) is only sand. No topsoil in sight. As far as you can see there are rolling hills of prairie with grazing cattle, but under that grass is only sand.
From Columbus to Ogallala, we drove part of the scenic Sandhills route. This area has been declared a National Natural Landmark. The Sandhills cover about 1/4 of the entire state and is the largest plant-anchored sand dune region in the world. It is also the largest sand dune formation in the Western Hemisphere. Who knew!
Lake McConaughey was formed by the Kingsley Dam and fed by the North Platte River. It is 22 miles long and 4 miles wide at its largest points! Since it is located at the south end of the Sandhills, the lake is home to nothing but beautiful sand beaches. Depending on the lake levels, you can even camp lake side on the beach! We couldn’t figure out how some of these huge RVs had managed to make it through some deep sand in order to camp in certain areas until we happened to see a HUGE tractor pulling another one out to a spot.
We chose this camping spot because Chris had read about a great kiteboarding community here. I can definitely see how that is possible, but unfortunately there was barely any wind this week. Chris did manage to get out one day, but the wind proved elusive and his session was short lived. I guess we will just have to come back and try again.
So how did the kids get to go tubing? Make a friend with a boat?
Making that post now!
Did you see any Sandhill Cranes?
I looked, but we didn’t. It is the wrong time of year for them.
I thought that might be the case for the huge migration but we saw a few of them in Yellowstone this time of year.
Thanks for the info. We will look when we are there.