Following that great night's sleep, it's time to shove off into the western part of the Sandhills. You'll continue to parallel the Middle Loup River for a few miles as you travel west. The road will then cross over the river via a high bridge that will allow you to see the river disappear from your view off to the northwest in the direction of its origin from a Sandhills spring. Total mileage from Thedford to Mullen is 27 miles, and, as you approach the turnoff to Seneca coming up on your right about halfway there, you'll be able to see the north wall of the deep gorge through which the Middle Loup River, now off to your right, is flowing. Seneca is only about a mile north of Highway 2, and you might want to take the short little hiatus to experience the rapid descent of the spur highway into the very narrow river valley. Despite the steep descent to the little town and the river, you are still almost 3,000 feet above sea level on the valley floor. As in all of the plains states, driving in a westerly direction across Nebraska finds you climbing in elevation at approximately eight feet per mile. The fall of the Middle Loup River as it courses easterly exemplifies this fact.
Although its inhabitants are not all wild animals native to this area, Stable Productions Exotic Animal Ranch, just a mile northeast of town on the north bank of the Middle Loup is, indeed, a range land zoo. It is home to bison, elk, reindeer, zebras, water buffalo, and an aviary of a multitude of birds. RSVPs are needed for viewing (www.stableproranch.com). After climbing back up out of the valley, hang a right and travel to the west on Highway 2. Set your watch back as you are now entering the Mountain Time zone. The deep cut of the Middle Loup River canyon off to your right angles away from the road off to the northwest approximately 40 miles, and the hills become a little gentler as you approach Mullen.
The vehicle license plate prefix in Hooker County, including Mullen (the county seat and only town), is number 93. Nebraska's counties were numbered 1 through 93 in 1922 based on descending order of registered vehicles. Hooker County, at that time, had the least number of registered vehicles in the state. As you can imagine, most of the counties in the Sandhills have high license plate numbers correlating with these wide-open spaces.
Despite its remoteness and low population, Mullen features the Mullen Arts Center, which displays paintings and other art by local artists. Additionally, if you can linger a little while in town, you might be able to participate in one of its workshops which will help you perfect your ability to paint one of the magnificent natural vistas you are encountering.
On the west edge of Mullen is Glidden Canoe Rental. If you missed it in Thedford, here's your opportunity to cruise down either the Middle Loup or the Dismal River. Canoes, kayaks, and tanks are the order of the day. Maybe you're destined to spend the first weekend in March in Mullen to participate in the Polar Bear Tank Race, the three-mile multi-person tank race on the Middle Loup that the Glidden's have hosted for years. We're talkin' serious business here. The entry fee covers everything for two days except your traveling to Mullen to participate. The SJNSB is forever indebted to the Gliddens as the proceeds after expenses are all donated to the Byway! Maybe you just want to join the festivities without getting on the river. The soup cook-off the Friday night before the Saturday race is a hoot, as is the awards ceremony Saturday evening following the river extravaganza, where participants and non-participants alike are welcome.
As you've driven across the Sandhills Journey National Scenic Byway, you may have seen chicken-sized birds, gray-brown colored with light-colored horizontal cross striations or white flecks in their plumage. These, the prairie chicken and its closely related cousin, the sharp-tailed grouse, are staples of this great grass prairie. If you find yourself doing this drive during the spring, your trip will only be complete with a guided visit to a prairie chicken or grouse "lek." A lek is a relatively small, almost sacred, area of prairie on which, each morning during March and much of April, the males gather to strut their stuff and demonstrate to not always- present-females that they, indeed, are of alpha status. Since the birds inflate their bright orange-covered neck pouches and expel the trapped air suddenly, while sometimes jumping several feet into the air, this grassy gathering area is called a "booming" ground, and the birds are sometimes called "boomers." Only a few outfitters provide guided visits to leks, Glidden Canoe Rental of Mullen being one of them. So, before you leave the Mullen area, you may want to reserve your seat in a blind with Mitch Glidden.
Finally, in case you're a golfer, several pro-quality golf courses are in the Sandhills – SandHills Golf Club and Dismal River Club - both a few miles south of Mullen. The Sandhills' great natural dune area has excellent topography and soil conditions – maybe sand conditions are more accurate – to closely mimic original Scottish links.
Pushing west from Mullen, you'll travel the 25 miles to Whitman. Whitman was named after Whitman, MA by a railroad official. There isn't much to see in the little unincorporated town, but here, just as in Halsey, a single-lane oil road strikes north into the hills. If you follow that road approximately three miles north and then turn right and travel about five miles, you will find the Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory. This laboratory is a testimony to the sustainable cattle industry in the form of a University of Nebraska research ranch, assuring that mankind knows how to care for these fragile, easily erodible hills. This ranch, and others like it, is constantly assessing grazing techniques and optimum utilization of this tremendous natural resource called the Nebraska Sandhills. The Sandhills are in phenomenal, sustainable shape today largely because of research such as what is done at Gudmundsen and then put into practice by ranchers all over the Sandhills.
Approximately one mile west of Whitman, you'll want to take in the view of Doc Lake nestled in this sub-irrigated wet valley up against some of the tallest, steepest hills in this vast area of sand dunes. If you happen to catch this scene along with an azure blue sky, you have, indeed, hit a home run.
Continuing west from Whitman, approximately 11 miles, and following the floor of the valley with its grass meadows, you come to the Avocet Wildlife Management Area, a gathering place for pelicans, at least during warmer months, sometimes in large numbers. Be sure to look, on your right, for these magnificent white birds, which, when they're fishing, display their pendulous, large pouch. These birds frequent the lakes throughout the Sandhills. In the spring, a family of swans also calls Avocet home.
Just to the northwest, about a mile from the lake, lays the town of Hyannis. Named for another Massachusetts town, Hyannis is another textbook cow town nestled in the Sandhills. But unlike other cow towns, in May 1931, Hyannis was declared "The Richest Town in America" by a reporter for the Omaha World Herald. So, what gives? At that time, the less than 100 people living in the town – due to the low population – filed income tax returns, and those people, on average, were purportedly worth approximately $150,000 each because many had extensive ranch holdings. Even today, the large ranches in the area, with miles and miles of range under their care and ownership, cause Grant County and other counties in the Sandhills to rank highly in per capita net worth. However, possessing a significant per capita net worth does not translate into extravagant lifestyles for these Sandhills ranchers. Frugality, hard work, and living within their means help keep them in a position to pay high dollar taxes, interest, and mortgage payments. These obstacles continue regardless of whether or not cattle prices and weather cooperate. Ranching builds character!
Pushing west of Hyannis, you'll arrive at Ashby after eight miles. Ashby is another little welcoming ranch town strung out along the Byway. It, too, was named after the Massachusetts Ashby. You'll need to stop here and visit with Linda, Nebraska's pot lady, at Calinda's Pot Shop and Art Gallery. She definitely is the pot lady in that she turns a lot of pots on a potter's wheel! The long-time pottery and painting instructor is also an accomplished painter, and you'll not want to leave Ashby without one or more of her productions, e.g. a beautiful painting of Sandhills flora and fauna. If you can stay a little while, she'll also convert you into a potter and painter!
So it's back out on the road for another 19 miles passing by Bingham and then stopping at Ellsworth. Ellsworth is home to Morgan's Cowpoke Haven and is better known as Morgan's Store. The store, on the National Register of Historic Places, was originally built in 1898 on the then-existing Spade Ranch as its supply store. It was, at that time, a depository for inbound supplies to be used on the 500,000-acre ranch. These essential goods were hauled 23 miles northeast to the Spade headquarters every three days by a 10-horse hitch. Wade Morgan and his general store currently offer a wide variety of merchandise, including a few snacks, western clothing, tack, and a large stock of guns. You really must experience this stop.
After spending some time in Morgan's Store, walk a short distance to the Nebraska Historical Marker that provides information about the Spade Ranch. Also located in the little town, see the well-preserved one-room school house on skids - the first" mobile home" in the hills.
You might be familiar with Mari Sandoz. Her books about the plains continue their legacy of educating generation after generation of people about the natural lure of this broad strip of Middle America running from Texas to Canada. Her writing rings through history and the Nebraska Sandhills, where she grew to adulthood. Old Jules, Cheyenne Autumn, and the Buffalo Hunters are just a few of the books that endeared many of us to this author and the plains she wrote about. Her cantankerous, mean-spirited father, Old Jules himself, had homesteaded in northeast Nebraska but left it for the Sandhills. In her biography of her father, Mari wrote, "And out of the East came a lone man in an open wagon, driving hard." Jules drove the three weeks from his homestead to the "Orchard Place," as Mari called it. Mari's grave site, almost sacred, lying in the hills that roll off endlessly in every direction, is about 23 miles north of Ellsworth and near the entrance to the Sandoz Fruit Farm, which is just beyond. You may desire to drive to the grave in respect for Mari's ability to "paint" the many pictures of the hills that she described so vividly through her writings.
After you shove off westward again, you'll come to Lakeside in about six miles. You may want to turn south here to go to Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge, a veritable flora and fauna bonanza. Caution: depending on the underground lake level, this road and other roads ahead of you may be underwater and not passable. Crescent Lake NWR is sometimes called a "Sea of Grass Within a Sea of Grass" due to the lush wetlands surrounded by a sea of Sandhills and the many plant species that make for a naturalist's dream come true. The refuge's great, valid claim to fame is the wide variety and countless species of waterfowl and other wildlife. Many lakes exist in the vast refuge and surrounding area and help provide unequaled habitat for all creatures, great and small. The refuge is open from sunrise to sunset, and for detailed information, visit the website at https://fws.gov/crescentlake or contact the headquarters at 308-762-4893 or crescentlake@fws.gov.
Starting westward once more out of Lakeside, you'll travel through terrain where the hills flatten out and roll more gently than in the Hyannis and Ashby areas, where the hills are quite large and steep. You'll arrive eight miles distant at Antioch, on the National Register of Historic Places and now only a near-ghost town, and discover old potash kiln remnants. These old kilns, long ago invaded by prairie grasses bent on reclaiming their rightful habitat, sprang to life at the beginning of WW1 when the U.S. supply of German potash dried up. If only Antioch could tell its own story, I'm sure we'd all be mesmerized. We know that Antioch was once a city of over 2,000 people and was called the potash capital of the U.S. Its proximity to several alkali lakes allowed five potash reduction factories to flourish but only until the war was over. At that time, the U.S. procured its potash again from Germany and France, and the short-lived boom town dried up.
Heading west again, you'll travel the final 15 miles of the Sandhills Journey National Scenic Byway into Alliance. Approximately five miles east of Alliance, you'll break out onto flat "hard ground," once again leaving the Sandhills behind you. Alliance lies on this high plains, flat plateau that was a perfect place for this Nebraska panhandle city to be birthed. The name "Alliance" did not come about as a result of any treaty signed here, nor was it derived from the Lakota Sioux language (the Sioux were a prominent tribe of native American Indians in this area before and during white settlement). Alliance means "Sand River Bend." Alliance celebrates the SJNSB with a couple of must-see stops, the Carnegie Art Center and the Knight Museum and Sandhills Center. The Carnegie Art Center is a premier art gallery and displays many paintings reflecting the Sandhills and their allurement in detail. The Alliance Knight Museum and Sandhills Center provides its visitors with a wide variety of natural and cultural exhibits, including large murals of the Ogallala Aquifer and Sandhills plant life. In downtown Alliance, you'll find several stores that display paintings that speak to the natural wonder of the land you just traversed.
As the day nears its end, you might want to wet your pallet and curb your appetite at Newberry's, a restaurant with a lot of history and character. Newberry's occupies the old saddlery plant where countless high-quality saddles, built for horses that spent countless hours under them, were built and sold. Many made their way into the Sandhills and are still mounted on horses covering the sand dunes and river valleys.
Alliance is home to many other good eating establishments as well. When your head longs for a pillow, you'll find good lodging accommodations in this Nebraska Panhandle city.
You've now experienced the Sandhills Journey National Scenic Byway over three or more days, depending on how many of those great side trips you decided to indulge in. You now recognize that what you saw was only one way to see it. The options for hours-long excursions or weeks-long journeys are many. This land keeps giving and giving to those who venture into its vastness. We trust that you agree, and we look forward to encountering you again along the Sandhills Journey National Scenic Byway!
Thank you for coming!