You'll want to see the cranes depart the river for the cornfields. Arrive at Crane Trust well before daylight so that your guide can accompany you to the blind while it is still dark. Quiet is the modus operandi so as not to disturb the cranes. They are still enjoying their vertical sleep on the sandbars in the river before sunrise. You'll quietly walk to the blind from the parking lot carrying your camera and your coat, an essential item in the predawn chill. As the wide, flat river emits its never-ending sounds of gently flowing water and starts to take visual form in the very early light, you'll see thousands of cranes catching a few last winks.
As the night fades away and daylight encroaches, you'll see them awakening and becoming restless. One by one and in groups, they rise into flight and fly to the nearby cornfields where they'll graze for the day, gaining energy stores. About 45 days of this diet will allow them to fly the great distances to northern Canada, Alaska, and Siberia to spend their summer before reversing their course in the fall.
After the cranes have left the river for the day, drive about 10-15 minutes into Grand Island, where many restaurants await you with coffee and your favorite breakfast items. Following your great breakfast and reminiscing on your post-crane tour, travel to the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, one of the top 10 living history museums in the U.S. It is situated at the junction of U.S. 34 and U.S. 281, about five miles north of I-80. Here you'll see what life was like on the prairie in the 1890s as pioneers faced the challenges of nature with its storms and pestilences. You'll experience how they lived and grew their families during the late 19th century.
From Stuhr Museum, travel to the northwest of Grand Island on Nebraska Highway 2, the Sandhills Journey National Scenic Byway. Along this phenomenal route, you'll find good lodging, including hotels, motels and beds and breakfasts, unique eateries as well as conventional eating establishments, and barista cafes with delectable fare.
After traveling about five miles, you'll see a sign pointing to Dannebrog, approximately 10 miles to the north. Dannebrog is the Danish Capital of Nebraska and lies in the Oak Creek and Middle Loup River Valleys. You may want to take this side trip to Dannebrog to enjoy its Danish heritage as reflected in such businesses as The Danish Bakery and Dannebrog Delights. As you travel north from Highway 2 on 90th Road, the Dannebrog road, you'll note a string of undulating sand hills. This sandy area is distinguished from the very large contiguous Sandhills – the largest area of sand dunes in the western hemisphere – that lie along Highway 2 to the northwest of your present location. This narrow row of low sand hills courses about 95 miles from about 35 miles southwest of your current location to approximately 60 miles northeast of this point. The sand hill pastures on your right are part of the Taylor Ranch, a ranch still encompassing thousands of acres that used to cover nearly 10,000 acres. Robert Taylor, the ranch founder and owner at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, was christened "Sheep King" and a book by that name speaks to this ranch. The "hard land" hills to the north of the Middle Loup, with their heavier soils, are very much different from the Sandhills and sandy river valley soil to the south of the river.
Approximately 17 miles west of Grand Island and five miles northwest of the Dannebrog turnoff, you'll travel through the small town of Cairo. The early pioneers named the town after Cairo, Egypt due to the large amount of sand in the area, and its streets' names ring of the Middle East. While in Cairo, take 20 to 30 minutes and visit Cairo Roots Historical Museum, which will introduce you to life as a pioneer in the mid and late 1800s. Henry Balcom, a farmer and photographer, brings old-time Central Nebraska to life with photos of the early settlers with a prairie backdrop – many in front of their "soddies."
Approximately six miles west of Cairo is the Solon Borglum Historical Marker speaking to the time when Solon Borglum perfected his painting and sculpting skills on his ranch that included the large sand bluff in view of, and off to the north of, the historical marker. Solon, a great artist in his own right, was the brother of Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of the presidential faces in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Gutzon himself spent some time on this Sandhills ranch.
As you travel west into the valley below the historical marker, you'll cross Sweet Creek with the large, beautiful sand bluff rising above it off to the north – your right. It is easy to identify with Solon Borglum's appreciation of the beauty of the range land that he, too, saw many years ago as he experienced frontier life, cowboys, and native Americans and turned those experiences into paintings and sculptures that we cherish today.
About two miles west of the creek, on the south side of the road, you might see the resident bull elk hanging out with a group of black beef cows for several years now. He's not alone in that other elk are occasionally seen in the area to compliment the many deer and other wildlife.
Your travel takes you west approximately seven miles, where you skirt the town of Ravenna, a major railroad town on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. Just a mile east of Ravenna, as you drop down off the sand hills into the South Loup River Valley, keep an eye out for jackrabbits – not to be confused with cottontails or "bunny" rabbits – which frequent the area. As far as that goes, your vigilance throughout the trip might yield more of them anywhere along your route. Additionally, just on the edge of the valley is a turnoff to Buffalo County Lake, three minutes off the road, which provides camping, fishing, and swimming (at your own risk).
Continue west and then northwest along Nebraska Highway 2 and the SJNSB. You'll travel through creek and river valleys in "hard land" country, unlike Sandhills country. Off to the sides of the stream valleys are hard land hills where cattle and wildlife graze. This entire area is abundant in wildlife of many species, including deer, an occasional elk, bobcats, occasional mountain lions, foxes, coyotes, and small wildlife such as rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, porcupines, skunks, groundhogs, mink, and birds of many countless species including Eagles, hawks, owls, herons, and the western meadowlark, the Nebraska state bird. During these 50 miles to Broken Bow, you'll travel through the towns of Hazard, Litchfield, Mason City, and Ansley, each having its own unique story to tell. Just stop and talk to anyone on main street, and they will clue you in with details. Your desire to fish or spend time boating or swimming (at your own risk) may take you off the SJNSB to Sherman Reservoir, about four miles east of Loup City, NE. If that is calling your name, turn north at Hazard on NE Highway 10. It's about 23 miles to Sherman Lake.
As you near Broken Bow, you'll notice the rather large, smoothly round-topped hills on either side of Mud Creek. Upon these grass-covered hills, thousands of bison once grazed as they did over the entire area of the plains. Homesteaders and cattlemen tended to disagree about land use, and some ugly incidents occurred in the 1800s. For example, the Olive Gang/homesteader quarrel near Callaway, a little canyon town 22 miles southwest of Broken Bow. Men died by gun and lynching in the dispute. You can learn more about it by visiting the Seven Valleys Museum in Callaway.
A big red barn on the east edge of Broken Bow houses the Sandhills Journey National Scenic Byway Visitor Center. This is a must-stop, and you'll want to spend some time here learning more about the SJNSB. This visitor center is staffed by hosts who know the Broken Bow area and the miles of hills and valleys along the Byway. In addition to great indoor exhibits and artifacts, head outside to find a large area of plants and grasses. Here you can learn to identify the grasses you will be seeing as you continue along the SJNSB into the largest area of stabilized sand dunes in the western hemisphere. Seven educational panels provide an in-depth look into what you will see as you continue on the SJNSB. A third of a mile trek uphill for the hearty will give you a 360-degree vista and explain the power of the wind turbines seen to the north.
The city square in Broken Bow is only five minutes away. Several interesting destinations are located on the square, including Wild Rose Gallery and Ortello Dale. They exemplify the talent of the people of the area as their exhibits trumpet the natural beauty of central and western Nebraska. The Custer County Museum is a must-stop if you are into natural history/pioneer history. The photographs by Solomon Butcher and others, and exhibits housed in the museum, are priceless. Gain insight into the lives of the pioneers that basked in sunny, perfect days but also endured nature's treacherous elements such as thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes, and raging blizzards.
You can find what your appetite craves in Broken Bow as they have a great assortment of eating establishments. Two more well-known restaurants are Bonfire Grill in the historic Arrow Hotel on the southwest corner of the square and microbrewery Kinkaider Brewing Company, about a mile north of the square. Speaking of Kinkaiders, in the early 20th century, settlers finally made it clear to the U.S. government that 160 acres of land, the amount a person could acquire via the Homestead Act, was insufficient to hope to scratch out a living in the Sandhills where sand was, and is, more prevalent than dirt. Moses Kinkaid of Nebraska was their spokesperson. President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law in 1904 the Kinkaid Act that allowed each settler to obtain 640 acres of land, instead of just 160 acres, in 37 counties in northwest Nebraska; hence, the Kinkaider Brewing Company name.
Just six miles southeast of Broken Bow is Straight Arrow Bison Ranch. Here you'll find a herd of about 100 bison grazing the prairie, much like they did in the 1800s. Your ride out among the bison in an SUV is a cool experience. And you can purchase some bison meat to take with you!
While in the Broken Bow area, you can tour a wind turbine on one of the two wind farms located just east of Broken Bow – which you saw a little earlier if you took that hike up the hill at the barn. Contact the SJNSB Visitor Center, 308-872-8331, or the SJNSB office, 308-546-0636, and they'll make the necessary reservations for you. We celebrate plentiful, natural wind in Nebraska, and these two wind farms stand tall for harvesting one of nature's natural resources.
You are now running out of daylight and probably need some supper – that's the evening meal in the Midwest, where "dinner" might refer to the noon meal! Regardless of what you want to call it, as you found out at lunch/dinner, many good eating places exist in Broken Bow, and you'll need to hit one of them before lodging for the night at one of the multiple hotels and motels or maybe one of the Bed and Breakfasts.