Scotts Bluff National Monument

The monument, located 3 miles west of Gering on Highway 92, is Nebraska’s Gibraltar. This fourteen million year old sedimentary mass stands hundreds of feet above the prairie floor near the North Platte River.

Scotts Bluff, as a landmark, loomed for days in the distance and signaled pioneers they were entering into the western lands.

Chimney Rock

Chimney Rock is the single most noted landmark on the Oregon Trail and has become one of the most famous landmarks in the American West.

This unique formation has come to symbolize the greatest voluntary migration in the history of mankind. Approximately 350,000 people passed by this unusual formation on the Oregon Trail.

Lake Minatare State Recreation Area

One of the most popular and scenic recreation areas in Nebraska's Panhandle, Lake Minatare State Recreation Area encompasses 2,973 acres, including the 2,158-acre lake. The lake has a wooded shoreline and is excellent for camping, picnic area, watersports, hiking, fishing, and wildlife observation. It is also the site of one of only seven inland lighthouses in the United States.

Lake Minatare is 6 miles east and 8 miles north of Scottsbluff in the historic North Platte River Valley.

Open January 15 - October 1
Game and Parks sticker required.

Phone: (308) 783-2911

Riverside Zoo

In the shadow of Scotts Bluff National Monument and on the banks of the North Platte River, this 22-acre zoo is home to over 200 animals exhibited in simulated natural habitats.

Visit the prairie dog community and a chimpanzee family in the conservation center.

Observe mountain lions roaming through rocks and caves and don’t miss the playful river otters.

View the unique tree sculpture carved from a single cottonwood tree.

Rare red pandas and a white tiger, born in 1990, are favorites of visitors to the zoo.

Phone: (308) 630-6236

Wildcat Hills State Recreation Area

Wildcat Hills State Recreation Area is located 10 miles south of Gering on Highway 71.

This recreation area, which includes the Wildcat Hills Nature Center and the Big Game Reserve, is a picturesque blend of rugged rock buttes and pine covered canyons.

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument

Located 32 miles north of Mitchell on Highway 29 on the Niobrara River in northwestern Nebraska, the Agate Fossil Beds and its surrounding prairie are preserved in a 3,000 acre National Monument.

Once part of "Captain" James H. Cook's Agate Springs Ranch, the nearby beds are an important source for 19.2 million year-old Miocene epoch mammal fossils. Cook's ranch also became a gathering place for Chief Red Cloud and other Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Indian people.

North Platte Valley Museum

The North Platte Valley Museum tells the fascinating story of human settlement in the North Platte River Valley of western Nebraska, from early Native American cultures like the Sioux and Cheyenne, to the European farmers, ranchers and townspeople who built strong communities in a region once considered part of a "Great American Desert."

Displays include an authentic sod house, a log house, period furniture, Indian and fur trade exhibits, a restored 1919 Patriot Truck, bull boat, early school room, general store, cowboy exhibits, clothing, tools and furnishings used by early settlers, horse drawn equipment, and military exhibits.

Robidoux Trading Post

In 1851, Plains Indians brought their furs to a secluded post in a cedar-lined canyon just a mile south of the historic Oregon Trail.

Antoine Robidoux built the original trading post and blacksmith shop.

Today, the post is reconstructed on its original site, built of 100 year old hand hewn timbers, dirt floor, pole and buffalo grass sod roof.

Farm and Ranch Museum

Devoted to the preservation and interpretation of early methods of agriculture in the North Platte Valley.

Displays of antique farm equipment from horse-drawn, to steam engines, to early tractors are on display.

Open May - September. Phone: (308) 436-1989