Smith Falls State Park
Road Trip from Omaha to Valentine, NE | Cowboy Trail | Smith Falls State Park | May 2022
It’s no secret that we’re big fans of shoulder season travel around here, and as the summer was rapidly approaching we decided to squeeze in one more Nebraska bucket list adventure. We left on a hot morning in mid-May, heading Northeast to Valentine.
Our road trip began with the accomplishment of one of our main goals for living in Nebraska: seeing our last 3 out of 93 courthouses in the state! We took NE-92 West to NE-15 to see #90 in David City, Butler County, then jogged Northeast to Schuyler for courthouse #91 – Colfax County, then finally took US-30 to Columbus where we saw our 93rd and final courthouse in Platte County! This has been a fun goal that has helped us to see so many small towns in Nebraska that we wouldn’t have driven through otherwise. We’ve decided that it’s a bit extreme to make this a goal for every state and aren’t interested in going out of our way to see them on long road trips, but it was a great project for the time that we had in Nebraska.
We took a short walk for Charlotte’s sake around the courthouse in David City and through Franklin Square Park in Columbus, then pushed on and continued our drive up to Valentine without stopping, just checking in to the Nebraska Passport app whenever we were near a featured location. The scenery gradually shifted from farmland to rolling sandhills, while the temperature dropped 20 degrees from what it had been in Omaha. Our first thought when we got out of the car in Valentine was how cold it was, and how we maybe didn’t pack for this weather. It always surprises me how different the climate of this area is from Eastern Nebraska!
Our first stop in Valentine was at the Cowboy Trail, where we parked at a trailhead Southeast of Valentine right off of US-20. The first thing I did was put on my jacket to protect myself from the cold and wind! From here, we walked about a half mile Northeast towards the High Trestle Bridge. There were a few scenic points along the trail that looked down on US-20, the Niobrara river, and surrounding hills, and Charlotte made sure we found the best overlook to see it all. The bridge was huge and very impressive, and Curtis even managed to find a letterbox. The Cowboy Trail is actually a 195 mile rail trail that runs from Norfolk to Valentine, and while Curtis often dreams of long distance trails, he admits that this one isn’t very exciting because it closely follows US-20 for almost its entirety.
After our walk, we drove to our intended campsite for the night in Smith Falls State Park. We had previously tried to visit and camp here last fall, but happened to arrive on the day after it closed for the season at the beginning of October. This time, we made sure to check and double check that it was open for the season since we were visiting before Memorial Day weekend. Thankfully it all worked out, and we were able to thoroughly enjoy this park!
There was only one other family camping that night, so we chose a first come-first served site on the opposite side of the campground. The mix of cooler weather and a big grassy space to run around gave Charlotte a burst of energy, and she was so playful and cute the whole time we were here.
Once our tent was set up and we were settled in, we went for a walk to see the main feature of the park — Smith Falls, which is also the tallest waterfall in Nebraska. We crossed over the Niobrara River and walked the ~1 mile loop trail up to see the falls and back. We had soup for dinner, played games, and read until bedtime. It rained a little through the night and was chilly, but we stayed warm and dry inside our tent.
