If you ever want to come someplace where you truly feel like you're all
alone in the wilderness, this is the place! From this campground, you
can't see a single structure other than the two vault toilets and the
corrals, for as far as the eye can see! I even got out the binoculars
and could just barely make out some kind of farm many miles away, not
viewable with the naked eye. It was so quiet last night, it was hard to
get used to after being in so many places where you could hear traffic
noise, or tourists driving by. No one would ever come out here by
accident, not subjecting themselves to 6 miles of bad road to get here,
that's for sure! After a leisurely breakfast, we saddled up the horses
and headed out on what I had planned to be a short, five mile or so loop
around the western part of Ft. Robinson State Park. We crossed the
water crossing and started heading up through the grasslands, until we
reached a gate. According to my GPS (which was a map based on the
printed map from the BLM), if we went through the gate, we'd be going in
the wrong direction, even though that's the way the white trail markers
went. Instead, we followed a fenceline that seemed to take us in the
right direction, but soon my GPS was showing we were going way off
track. Instead of turning around, we decided to continue along the
fenceline until it met up with the back half of the loop, then follow it
backwards. At least then we wouldn't have to follow the road at the
end of the trip, which was our original plan. When we reached the
intersection, we saw the trail clearly straight in front of us (though,
it turned out that we should have headed left at a lesser marked
intersection) and climbed up a long grade to the top of the bluff, where
we were met with some simply spectacular views! All 360 degrees around
us were incredible, the kind of view that just can't be done justice by
a few pictures or a verbal description. Absolutely stunning! We
continue to follow along the well-marked trail for a while, passing
several markers laying on the ground, but it seemed to be heading along
just fine. Then we came to a place where there was a picnic table and
what looked like a collapsed shelter, and just beyond that, we came
across a small herd of more than a dozen horses! I doubt they were
wild, someone likely just had them grazing out there, but they were
definitely related to each other, and they were beautiful! Several red
roans with gorgeous faces, a couple of rare blue roans, some grays and
whites, and two sorrels, one that looked a lot like my Apollo, though
with a larger blaze than his perfect diamond. Well naturally, my guy
got a bit excited by that, and we had a few scary moments while we tried
to pass them, though they were planted right at a marker, but we saw
the next marker and made a beeline there. Curious, the horses kind of
followed us, which made my guy more antsy, but eventually we got around
them to where the next marker was. That led to a gate, which was next
to a pasture with some cows in it. After just one short startled moment
when he spotted the cows, Apollo was very good about ignoring them, for
which I was grateful. Quite a change from just a few months ago!
Well, after all, we've conquered buffalo in the wild, right? What's a
couple of cows anymore? We went through the gate, and after a short
bit, I checked my GPS, which confirmed what I had already suspected, we
were going WAY off track, in exactly the opposite direction we needed to
go to get back to camp. The problem here is that there are no markers
except white diamonds, and white diamonds are used on EVERY trail! So,
unfortunately, we had to turn around, deal with the gate, the cows and
the horses once again, past the picnic table, until just beyond that we
came to a marker that was on the ground. We had seen it before, but
what we hadn't seen was that in addition to the marker that was directly
in front of us (and the one we followed), there was an additional
marker to our sharp left (which was now almost directly in front of us
on the return.) So we got back on track there, and followed that trail,
which fortunately at least was in the same general vicinity as the GPS
said it would be. This trail basically followed the ridgeline, so the
views were universally spectacular, with every curve providing another
view of distant horizons. We could even see what looked like the Black
Hills from here! Fantastic! Another mile or so on and we ran into yet
ANOTHER small herd of horses, mostly white and gray, a couple of which
were huge draft horses, and a burro with paint coloring, which I'd never
seen before. Of course, they were right in the middle of the trail,
and we did our best to skirt them, and managed to get by with only one
scary moment when Apollo had the urge to back himself toward the group,
which I saw as an invitation to a kicking match, but I managed to get
him out of there before any excitement began. The rest of the trip was
uneventful, though there were a few rather steep rocky sections coming
down that way. For the most part, we probably didn't need boots, but
for those areas where we did, we were very glad to have them. Got back
to camp and got everyone settled, then anxiously downloaded my GPS info
onto my computer, since this seemed to be a classic case of what the
maps says and what's on the ground as completely different from each
other. It turned out that our 5 mile trip ended up being 8.25 miles,
and less than half of it was on trails that I had designated as our
path. I learned that we missed one intersection completely, and that
the GPS trail made from the hard copy map didn't seem to have much in
common. I can't say I was too surprised, because when I tried to line
up the overlay on Google Earth, it didn't seem to match up very well,
even on the highly visible landmarks like roads! Well, still, it was a
great ride, we saw fabulous views, everyone got home safe and sound, and
ultimately, that's the important thing. Not long after getting back,
another horse trailer pulled in next to us, surprising us a bit, as we
were beginning to think we were alone in the universe out here! Two
sisters, maybe my age or a little older, set up camp, corralled their
horses, and settled in along side us. I visited with Pat and Fran and
their mother's dog Hoot for a while, though for some reason, Hoot kept
growling at my guys, who were behaving beautifully. Usually it's Billy
that starts growling, but this time he let the other dog do it, and he
just kept making the rounds, getting lots of attention from the ladies.
Eventually we settled down for the night, having now ridden in our 45th
State!
If you ever want to come someplace where you truly feel like you're all
alone in the wilderness, this is the place! From this campground, you
can't see a single structure other than the two vault toilets and the
corrals, for as far as the eye can see! I even got out the binoculars
and could just barely make out some kind of farm many miles away, not
viewable with the naked eye. It was so quiet last night, it was hard to
get used to after being in so many places where you could hear traffic
noise, or tourists driving by. No one would ever come out here by
accident, not subjecting themselves to 6 miles of bad road to get here,
that's for sure! After a leisurely breakfast, we saddled up the horses
and headed out on what I had planned to be a short, five mile or so loop
around the western part of Ft. Robinson State Park. We crossed the
water crossing and started heading up through the grasslands, until we
reached a gate. According to my GPS (which was a map based on the
printed map from the BLM), if we went through the gate, we'd be going in
the wrong direction, even though that's the way the white trail markers
went. Instead, we followed a fenceline that seemed to take us in the
right direction, but soon my GPS was showing we were going way off
track. Instead of turning around, we decided to continue along the
fenceline until it met up with the back half of the loop, then follow it
backwards. At least then we wouldn't have to follow the road at the
end of the trip, which was our original plan. When we reached the
intersection, we saw the trail clearly straight in front of us (though,
it turned out that we should have headed left at a lesser marked
intersection) and climbed up a long grade to the top of the bluff, where
we were met with some simply spectacular views! All 360 degrees around
us were incredible, the kind of view that just can't be done justice by
a few pictures or a verbal description. Absolutely stunning! We
continue to follow along the well-marked trail for a while, passing
several markers laying on the ground, but it seemed to be heading along
just fine. Then we came to a place where there was a picnic table and
what looked like a collapsed shelter, and just beyond that, we came
across a small herd of more than a dozen horses! I doubt they were
wild, someone likely just had them grazing out there, but they were
definitely related to each other, and they were beautiful! Several red
roans with gorgeous faces, a couple of rare blue roans, some grays and
whites, and two sorrels, one that looked a lot like my Apollo, though
with a larger blaze than his perfect diamond. Well naturally, my guy
got a bit excited by that, and we had a few scary moments while we tried
to pass them, though they were planted right at a marker, but we saw
the next marker and made a beeline there. Curious, the horses kind of
followed us, which made my guy more antsy, but eventually we got around
them to where the next marker was. That led to a gate, which was next
to a pasture with some cows in it. After just one short startled moment
when he spotted the cows, Apollo was very good about ignoring them, for
which I was grateful. Quite a change from just a few months ago!
Well, after all, we've conquered buffalo in the wild, right? What's a
couple of cows anymore? We went through the gate, and after a short
bit, I checked my GPS, which confirmed what I had already suspected, we
were going WAY off track, in exactly the opposite direction we needed to
go to get back to camp. The problem here is that there are no markers
except white diamonds, and white diamonds are used on EVERY trail! So,
unfortunately, we had to turn around, deal with the gate, the cows and
the horses once again, past the picnic table, until just beyond that we
came to a marker that was on the ground. We had seen it before, but
what we hadn't seen was that in addition to the marker that was directly
in front of us (and the one we followed), there was an additional
marker to our sharp left (which was now almost directly in front of us
on the return.) So we got back on track there, and followed that trail,
which fortunately at least was in the same general vicinity as the GPS
said it would be. This trail basically followed the ridgeline, so the
views were universally spectacular, with every curve providing another
view of distant horizons. We could even see what looked like the Black
Hills from here! Fantastic! Another mile or so on and we ran into yet
ANOTHER small herd of horses, mostly white and gray, a couple of which
were huge draft horses, and a burro with paint coloring, which I'd never
seen before. Of course, they were right in the middle of the trail,
and we did our best to skirt them, and managed to get by with only one
scary moment when Apollo had the urge to back himself toward the group,
which I saw as an invitation to a kicking match, but I managed to get
him out of there before any excitement began. The rest of the trip was
uneventful, though there were a few rather steep rocky sections coming
down that way. For the most part, we probably didn't need boots, but
for those areas where we did, we were very glad to have them. Got back
to camp and got everyone settled, then anxiously downloaded my GPS info
onto my computer, since this seemed to be a classic case of what the
maps says and what's on the ground as completely different from each
other. It turned out that our 5 mile trip ended up being 8.25 miles,
and less than half of it was on trails that I had designated as our
path. I learned that we missed one intersection completely, and that
the GPS trail made from the hard copy map didn't seem to have much in
common. I can't say I was too surprised, because when I tried to line
up the overlay on Google Earth, it didn't seem to match up very well,
even on the highly visible landmarks like roads! Well, still, it was a
great ride, we saw fabulous views, everyone got home safe and sound, and
ultimately, that's the important thing. Not long after getting back,
another horse trailer pulled in next to us, surprising us a bit, as we
were beginning to think we were alone in the universe out here! Two
sisters, maybe my age or a little older, set up camp, corralled their
horses, and settled in along side us. I visited with Pat and Fran and
their mother's dog Hoot for a while, though for some reason, Hoot kept
growling at my guys, who were behaving beautifully. Usually it's Billy
that starts growling, but this time he let the other dog do it, and he
just kept making the rounds, getting lots of attention from the ladies.
Eventually we settled down for the night, having now ridden in our 45th
State!
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