A Walk in the Woods

Who wouldn’t enjoy a walk in the woods,  right?  We do, and so do the dogs.  The last couple of days we have been in the woods…BIG woods.  Yesterday, we arrived at Indian Cave State Park, near Shubert, Nebraska, early in the afternoon.  This lovely park is less than 100 miles from Rock Creek COE Park, so it was a short trip.  It was mid-week, so there weren't many RVs in camp, and we had our choice of camping sites.  

We have been here before, but it has been a while.  In checking our trip logs, i found that we visited on August 18-20 of 2010.  Our canine companions at the time were Lucky Dog, Nickie and Feathers, all of whom have now passed.  The interesting thing is that back in 2020 we again had the park almost to ourselves.  At that time there were only us and five other campers in the whole park.  Here are photos from that trip.  

Looks familiar, doesn’t it?  The dogs in the pictures above are Nickie and Feathers, but otherwise everything looks pretty much the same.  It should.  We didn’t know it when we picked out our site yesterday, but we chose the same one we had in 2010, Site # 86.  It is beautiful, with a large, grassy lawn and lots of room for dogs to stretch and play.  Cody and Bo did ready-gos until their tongues were hanging out, and Rue chased as many balls as John would throw.

And woods...behind our campsite are woods so dense even Kota doesn't venture in very far.

I wish we had planned a longer stay here.  There are miles and miles of hiking trails through the woods, and we took full advantage of them today.  

The dogs accompanied us to see Indian Cave, for which the park is named.

It overlooks the mighty Missouri River, flowing strong and fast.

Then we hiked several of the park’s trails through beautiful woods and along ridges with views of the river.

Perhaps the day’s biggest surprise was Kota.  Our “geriatric” 12 1/2-going-on-13-year-old dog led the pack most of the way.  She also flushed some ducks from the reeds beside the river, and almost didn’t come back when we called.  (I'm sure she as thinking of the 18-pound turkey tom and the three wild pheasants she caught and killed in her younger days.)  I’m glad the ducks flew instead of going into the Missouri; I think she might have gone in after them.  Of course, she didn’t carry water like the rest of the dogs; she just wore a vest with a handle in case we had to help her on the trail.  Clearly, she didn’t need any help.

The Missouri was swift and muddy, and looked treacherous.  I can’t imagine what it must have been like for early settlers to cross as they made their way west.  The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through this area in July of 1804.  This spot overlooks the site of a terrible storm which came up suddenly and almost swamped the expedition’s boats.  

As Clark recalled, "...at half past Seven, the atmisphr became Suddenly darkened by a black and dismal looking Cloud....  The Storm which passed over an open Plain from the N.E. Struck...our boat on the Starbd. quarter, and would have thrown her up on the Sand Island dashed to pieces by an Instant, had not the party leeped out on the Leward Side and kept her off with assistance of the ancker & Cable."

There is a lot of history at Indian Cave, and I wish we had planned a few more days here.  Next time......