7/24 - 7/25/21:

7/24 we traveled from Iowa to Minnesota into South Dakota. Another hot day for sure, in the 90's. 

 Iowa and South Dakota farmers bail the grass on the side of the highway. I guess when your farm is miles and miles long and there is no trash on the side of the road this works. The fields are packed with corn and I think soy beans for as far as you can see.

Large storage facilities like the one below about every 1 1/2 to 2 miles apart.

Along the way we stopped at Pipestone NP, MN where Native Americans for thousands of years have quarried a very soft red stone to make pipes for ceremonies etc. The stone can be fairly easily cut and carved.

The night of 7/24 we stayed near the Missouri River in Yankton, South Dakota right on the Nebraska border.

7/25/21 At the start of our day on our way over the Missouri River into Nebraska, we stopped at the Lewis and Clark NP for a view of the river and two interesting bridges.

The first bridge pictured below was built in the 20's and is notable as the entire center section of the bridge is pulled straight up on pulleys for large ships to pass under.

The bridge below, just up the river is relatively new and has stone columns supporting the bridge.

Today's big adventure 7/25 - we traveled across Nebraska to Ashfall State Park. It was interesting for a couple of reasons, first I had read for pleasure (yes that's right) the Ashfall fictional books about the aftermath of the Yellowstone volcano erupting in current times. Actually, the last eruption of Yellowstone was about 70,000 years ago, but the one that blanketed this area of Nebraska with 10 to 50 feet of ash was 11.8 million years ago; roughly 800 miles away!

A large area of the Ashfall site is an archaeological dig which has been roofed over to protect it from deterioration of the fossils from the elements.

Major finds are a barrelled bodied Rhinoceros- several 100 found here along with three-toed-horses, 

primitive Llama-sized Camel. This animal is believed to have crossed the land bridge into what is now Russia and on to Africa. 

                                                        Barrel body Rhino sculpture

                                                            Sabre tooth Deer also found

Ended the day by going to Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge. We didn't see any wildlife except for some birds but did walk to a beautiful waterfall.