Shramm Park State Recreation Area

Hiking in Shramm Park | Holy Family Shrine | October 2020

Overall, this fall in Nebraska has been better than we could’ve asked for — we’ve had plenty of sunny days in the 50s-70s, and we’ve made the most of every one of them. In fact, the last real cold front we’ve had was at the end of October. Temperatures dipped to highs in the 30’s, and we had our first snow on October 26. We mentally prepared ourselves for an early and cold winter, but have been pleasantly surprised by the warmer weather that followed.

However, during the cold snap, we were convinced that we’d never be warm again, so we bundled up and went out for a Saturday morning hike Southeast of us. Located on the North side of the Platte, across from Platte River and Eugene T. Mahoney State Parks is Shramm Park State Recreation Area. We saw there was a 3 mile loop trail there, and decided we could bear the cold for that long just to say we got out of the house.

As long as we kept moving, we stayed warm enough, and we enjoyed the quiet walk in the woods — Curtis said he liked it even more than Platte River State Park. There were definitely less people here, though that could be because of the cold. You can see our trail recording here. Along with the trails is a fish hatchery, geological display, and education center.

From here we drove east on NE31 following the Platte river. We followed signs for a place called ‘Cloisters on the Platte’. The property was closed for the weekend, but based on what we could see and looked up later, we think it’s probably very similar to Mepkin Abbey in South Carolina.

We continued following NE31 until we reached signage for the ‘Holy Family Shrine’. Curtis had found out about this place back in 2014 through letterboxing, though we’ve only now taken the time to visit. The Chapel overlooks I-80 and you can see it fairly easily driving West along the interstate.

We took turns sitting in the chapel and found our letterbox. Had Charlotte not been with us, there’s a walking trail through the stations of the cross, but not today. Instead we drove back home, where we spent the rest of the cold weekend.