We spent the morning around the RV. Doing regular "stuff". After lunch we headed over to Lake McConaughy. Our first stop was in Ogallala, at the Petrified Wood & Art Gallery. What a neat gallery. It is a non-profit and free. The original twin owners, now 94, have been collecting petrified wood items all their life. They have items from all over the world. They also created art work from petrified wood chips that were very impressive. The polished petrified wood items were really beautiful, and colorful.
Our next stop was at the visitor center by the dam. They had several interesting videos about the creation of the dam, back in the 30's, and the current use of the water--mostly for irrigation and recreation. We drove over the 2,100 foot dam, and drove the 20 miles along the northern shoreline. There were 7 major bays, each with two or three beach access points. However, the water level was very low, and the shoreline was probably 1/4 mile away across loose white sand. Even though you are allowed to drive on the beach, and even camp on it, we were not willing to attempt the drive on such loose sand in our car, even if it is an all-wheel drive. So we were not impressed with this lake. Our last stop was at the Sandy Beach, at the western most part of the lake. Very few people were there, and we actually found a paved boat ramp into the water that we drove the car down, so we could at least be at the lake side for a bit.
We decided not to retrace our steps back around the eastern side of the lake, and instead headed further west, and turned south at the end of the lake. This gave us more to see of the countryside. As we turned south, we came to Ash Hollow State Historical Park. Now this was impressive. It turns out there is a spring there with a pond. It was visited by the Plains Indians, fur traders and trappers, and was a principal stopping point on the Oregon, California and Mormon trails. It is a valley between tall bluffs, so to get to the spring, we needed to walk down, down a steep hill, and then back up, of course. But sitting a the spring head, in this little valley, was quite idyllic. Long, but nice day of sightseeing.
Petrified Wood gallery photos:
Lake McConaughy Dam photo:
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