A little while ago we bought this cute little camping trailer. The sad part is that we haven’t gotten to use it other than one trip. [Here if you care!]

So we were excited to head out for a few days, mid week, with our friends Tom and Linda.

Tom had called the campground a couple of times, and asked if we needed reservations. He was told we could just show up and we’d be fine. He was ahead of us when we arrived, and at the gate the attendant asked him if he had a reservation… Tom’s heart sank… what if they said “Sorry, we’re all full?” The guy then assured him – I just ask because the paperwork is different. There’s plenty of room! Just pick your sites and come back and pay.

We were astounded when we got into the camping area! Of 140 some sites, only 3 were occupied, and one of those was the camp host. We had a huge gorgeous area all to ourselves. I kept taking pictures just because I couldn’t believe the openness… and of course it was beautiful! Their website calls the part “Nebraska’s best kept secret”, and that seems to be true.

The name of this place is Indian Cave State Park, so you might be expecting a cave like Tom Sawyer’s “Injun Joe” cave. Thankfully, we were warned ahead not to get our hopes up…

The boardwalk leading to the cave might suggest something grand… but no.

It could be named “Small Indentation In The Rock That Native Americans Stopped By Occasionally State Park.” I’ll admit that doesn’t sound as good, and would be hard to fit on the little stickers they sell in the ranger stations. But it would be honest.

Speaking of honest, I must admit the area is very pretty. Bushes have grown so tall near the mouth of the “cave” that you really can’t see in very far. But you can tell there isn’t very far in to see anyway. We were told there are petroglyphs in and around the cave, but we couldn’t find any from the viewing platform. Entrance into the cave is strictly forbidden.

Here’s a segmented pano shot of the cave. Not a lot else to show. Injun Joe would have had a hard time hiding treasure here!

If you were able to live in the little cave, you’d have a nice view of the grand old Missouri river. It might not be the Mississippi, but it’s pretty big and impressive. The current is very strong – I wouldn’t want to be paddling upstream like Lewis & Clark did with their team! There was a time when paddlewheel steamers worked their way up and down this river. Fun to imagine what history this grand old river has seen!

We watched a glorious sunset over the Missouri.

Tom’s biscuits and gravy made our breakfast in paradise special!

An old log cabin has been preserved, along with some other outbuildings.

Outside one shed are some rusty tools… This one seems to be a drill press, probably driven by belts from a tractor (or Model T Ford), but several of the levers made no sense. If you know this machine, please comment and educate me!

Not far away is a restored schoolhouse. Pretty spartan.

The old general store was more interesting (through the windows) but I didn’t seem to get a picture of the exterior. I hope you’ll live…

Another impressive boardwalk lead to a river overlook. Again, a huge river!

Our last night there we cooked our dinner in the fire. Fabulous!

We hadn’t found any trash cans in the park, so Tom put a bag of our trash on the back of his truck. In the morning we found that raccoons found and enjoyed our dinner too! Some of the little fellas left muddy prints on his windshield to confirm their identity.

Identity markers are what cemeteries are all about, and there is an old one in the park. Some markers dated from Civil War times. It’s always sobering to see how many died as infants or small children. Some might say “Aged 34 years 78 days.”

This one seemed like the guy carved his own memorial. Some very unconventional phrases… “My spirit is out right now, but I’ll see you later on!” “No pity for me, I accomplished what others wished they had done.” “My most aristocratic friends was my loving cats.” And he finishes with “What an adventurous journey it was.”

We were told that one marker had removable panels where booze was hidden during prohibition. This must be the one. It is made of metal, and the panels could be unbolted to reach the hollow interior.

It’s a good story, but the date on the memorial is 1890, a good 3 plus decades before prohibition… Did the deceased see that time in the future and prepare a tiny space for the convenience of outlaw offspring? Seems somewhat unlikely.

Here’s another tall tale… A prominent cowboy asked to be buried on his horse, and this is where that is supposed to have happened. A tree was planted over the guy planted on his horse, and a circle of stones marked the perimeter of his grave. We found the tree and circle, but the tale (tail?) of the horse is hard to verify.

A butterfly posed long enough for me to be amazed at his bilateral symmetry…

And so ended our brief stay in our “private” campground. Good friends, good food, interesting scenery and artifacts… Not a bad trip!