The Great Prairie Safari -- Day Four

4 May 2013; On the Prairie -- oops, In Hot Springs SD --

Well, we intended to be camped on the prairie this night. But circumstances [and intelligence "gathered in the field"] changed our plans. Here we are ensconced again in the "lap of luxury" -- a Motel 6 this time.

Leaving Casper WY early this morning, we entered Nebraska nominally along the North Platter river valley to the little village of Crawford NE. Here we turned North toward "Toadstool Campground" and the Oglalla National Grasslands where Grumpy planned to experience a memory from his childhood: the smell of prairie wildflowers in the Spring.

After 30 or 40 miles of rough, dusty road we arrived at Toadstool, surprised to find 3 or 4 other cars there

[we had expected we would be the only ones!]. A guided nature trail invited our investigation. [The boys preceded this walk by an exploratory scouting trip.]

After a delicious lunch, prepared Swedish-style [umpteen choices of meat, cheese, raw veggies and fruit! "Now what'll you have?"], we set out on a nature-guided tour of this "Geological Park".

The topography of the guided trail was along and up over some of the various layers of sedimentary deposits that were made over eons of geological time. This particular site had a very shallow, wide and slow moving river that progressively laid down thin layers of clay and, at times, lime-rich sandy/gravelly layers.

These thin, clay layers provide an interesting contrast as they slowly erode away from rain and wind, exposing several layers in one view.

The lime-rich layers eventually solidified into a kind of bad concrete -- too much water or not enough lime. It is this quasi-concrete that comprise the erosion-resistant strata, on the top surface of which may be found impressions made by prehistoric animals. One such example is shown in this photo; these are supposedly the multiple tracks of a herd of migrating rhinoceroses.

The two boys, being boys, persisted in posing in various odd perches. Their bodies, however, provide a good contrast to highlight the ability of the different layers to either resist erosion, or to embrace it.

Here is a place where water flowing over the upper, resistive layers has seemed to "melt" away the soft layers of clay which were underneath.

The Swede, remembering why we came on this trip, captured this photo of the prairie creeping Flox. The aroma of this tiny flower is one of the many smells of the Spring flowers that Grumpy has pined for. [Thanks, Swede!]

At this point, I am going to use another post to intersperse a totally different subject that occurred on this, the fourth day. Don't go too far away!