A night in Scotts Bluff's shadow

Call it a pleasant quirk of the plains. Many Nebraska towns operate public campgrounds that offer affordable spots to post a tent or RV for the night. The facilities might be spartan, but no one can beat the price. 

In Scottsbluff, no one can Riverside Park’s campground location on the north bank of the North Platte. The campground looks straight across the river at Scotts Bluff National Monument, towering several hundred feet above the plains. 

I discovered this campground in May, when I was looking for short trips around the region. Western Nebraska fascinates me – it gets little credit for much of the similar geography/geology that defines the Badlands of South Dakota. But these remnants of an older, higher set of plains stun every time I pass through the region. The caprock formations could almost stand in for Monument Valley, from which John Ford gave western films their iconic look.

I had only made a reservation for one person, but the camp host wasn’t concerned. She gave all sorts of good advice about the town, places to visit and advised that we had the right sight for this heat, as the only other campground in the two cities had almost no shade. 

As we pitched our tents the heat grew fierce. But we had shade on our side. In the morning, our campsite would be blazing with little to guard against the sun. At day’s hottest point, we could find some relief. As put the camp into shape, the looming trees began blocking the afternoon sun. That alone made a huge difference, although I definitely felt the 90-plus temperatures and tried to drink enough water to compensate. 

With camp set up, we relaxed for short while as breeze came through the swaying trees. Being in a hive of activity meant we did not relax long. The North Platte demanded exploring, and we walked the north shore for a mile or so, the other side protected by the national monument. 

Turtle

In one of its largest rapids, an overturned car, its wheels long since rotted away, was propped among the rocks. The Russian olive trees lining the banks came from settlers; the wagon trains passing through would have had no shade at all. Now considered invasive, they were considered relief on this day, as the heat would have been stifling without them.

The park greenway branched to casting ponds, the campground, a shelter house and the least likely amenity, a full-fledged zoo, the Riverside Discovery Center, the only one in western Nebraska.

Tortoise

The turtle and duck ponds were placid, even if the turtles seemed eager for people to feed them. They swarmed by the little bridge, and lost interest when the food did not arrive. 

An African tortoise in a separate habitat seemed enriched by our company. Although the splash zone is intended for children, there were few at this late hour and it was hard to skip a walk through the mists. 

The bobcat lounged in its habitat, giving me a great sequence of photos as its stretched then bounced down and eagerly lapped from a water source. Most of the primates stayed in the shade. Some of it I blame on catching them on a hot day. Hard to fault that. Their two tigers lived in separate, adjacent enclosures. Each clearly knew another tiger lived in close proximity, although they mostly stuck to house cat activities, like munching on grass and lounged slit-eyed in the shade. 

Yes, we can admit zoos are unnatural and disruptive. But these days zoos like the RDC host many native natives, such as raptors that are unreleasable due to past injuries. They covered a full range of raptors, and confirmed that I had seen a Swainson’s hawk along the roadside in eastern Nebraska a month earlier. Along with the peacocks and peahens, a flock of turkeys roamed the grounds, along with dozens of waterfowl in the center’s ponds. Birds are not the zoo’s only orphaned animals. 

Their newest large exhibit highlights other animals that would have not survived in the wild. Smoky and Bandit are brothers. Likely they came to the zoo as cubs when they lost their mother. Even in the heat, as they hunted for shade, the two seemed to do well in their new enclosure. They stood just 10 feet away from us, across a series of fences. They panted furiously in the evening sun, seeming more dog-like than that they should for their massive size. They still had some room to grow, even as their claws seemed longer than my fingers. 

Brotherhood only goes so far in the bear world, especially on a hot day. One bear got too close to the other, and they scrapped briefly till one ran off. Bears in captivity do behave differently – adequate food supply negates the need to hibernate as they would in the wild, and they instead fall into states of torpor and reduced activity. Like humans, they probably just get irritated with each other sometimes.

Perhaps the individual animal that struck us the most was a baby badger who had arrived just that week. Only six to eight weeks old, he essentially had no chance of surviving without his mother. He already had the massive, grooved claws of his species. Frightened as the little fellow was, he was spared an early death, and could give people a chance to see a mammal few get to experience in the wild. 

As we exited, the bobcat who posed freely had disappeared within its habitat, as bobcats usually do. The marble fox seemed almost doglike as he watched us from afar only to spring away as we came close. Not an actual species, marble foxes come from cross-breeding of silver foxes and red foxes, with the intent of turning them into pets. While this fellow seemed friendly enough with glass between us, he clearly retained wild instincts and wouldn’t seem appropriate as a house pet. 

We settled in for camp conversation. When the camp hosts stopped to offer free firewood, we passed, since tending a fire would keep us awake deep into the night. At dusk, a series of storms rolled through the Wildcat Hills, putting on a top-notch lightning show. The clouds took on a patches of reds, pinks and blues and twilight crept in, split by the occasional branch that reach down to the prairie. 

Tim retired earlier than me, as he worked third shift and had been awake more than 20 hours. By lamplight I stayed up and took notes from the day as I often do when traveling. The next day I would find that the can’t-see-ems had their way with me, as I had numerous bites from bugs I never saw. But that is camping in western Nebraska. The mosquitoes were light, the kids were running around the campground with a fury and the parties gradually fizzled out like they fires they circled. 

People camp in far different ways. Other people towed double-wide trailers into their camp slots and slept 15 comfortably. They have every right to those setups. 

On this night, with the thunderstorms safely south and the breeze funneling through the tent windows, I felt content with my little square on the soft ground,, with no modern conveniences and crickets chirping just outside the tent flap.