Lewis and Clark Lake SRA - NEGPP #10

Another of our excursions over the Memorial Day weekend was to Lewis & Clark Lake SRA. Just north of Crofton, NE, this lake is on the Missouri river on the Nebraska/South Dakota border. Here is a little more information:

Lewis and Clark Lake is Nebraska's second largest lake. Located on the Nebraska/South Dakota border, it is 16 miles long and 3 miles wide. It was named after the famous expedition lead by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. The expedition to find a route to the western part of the continent, took them up the Missouri River across the Louisiana Purchase. They camped near this point and thus when the lake was created, it was named after the two. Gavin's Point Dam flooded the valley and created this lake.

Much like Lewis and Clark, this ended up being an epic journey for our family. There were numerous trails, and the directions (which have since been changed to provide easier access) told us to follow the trail for 1.5 miles heading north and/or west at forks until we found the post. As we began our journey, we took the stroller, which has very high off road performance (for a stroller) but only a single seat. We also had a few bottles of Gatorade. Things started great as we observed nature in this heavily wooded area. We showed the girls beaver runs, dams, and where they had felled trees. Another hiker po

inted out some snails to us. We saw lots of birds, and the beauty of mostly undisturbed nature along the dirt path. However, the directions of "north and west" proved to be lacking when we found paths that headed in both directions. At one point, we went in a giant loop adding a half mile to our trek. Up hills, through valleys, all the while pushing the stroller with one of the girls in it, and usually carrying on other. Though it seemed like we would never reach the end of the trail, we did come across some beautiful places.

Finally, nearly 2 hours into our journey, we found the post. 

There are no pictures of the remainder of the journey. We decided to take an alternate route on the return trip and with everyone being exhausted, a little lost, and hungry, we just hurried along as fast as we could. It was a quite a journey, but there were some good sights and it was good bonding time for our family. We just hope the girls have pleasant memories of this when they grow up. We arrived back at the car 3 1/2 hours after we had left for what we thought would be at most a 2 hour trip. It was almost 2:30 and so we were all starving. The girls quickly plowed through our supply of granola bars and crackers as we drove somewhere to get lunch.  

One bit of fortune: just as we pulled out of the river valley, the looming clouds which had kept the day from getting overly hot let go with a cool refreshing rain which put the girls to sleep.